Minimum salary for ‘kasambahay’ in BARMM pegged at P5,000

BARMM administration building | Photo from Bangsamoro Information Office-BARMM c/o PNA

COTABATO CITY — For the first time in the region, an order setting the minimum monthly wage rate for “kasambahay” (domestic workers) in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) at P5,000 has been issued by the Regional Wages and Productivity Board (RTWPB) here.

Minister Muslimin Sema of the Ministry of Labor and Employment (MOLE), who chairs the RTWPB in the BARMM, said he signed the new wage order, also known as the “Wage Order for Domestic Workers,” following a meeting of the board on Monday.

“This is historic and unprecedented,” Sema said, adding that the wage order was the result of a series of consultations with affected sectors across the region and had taken into consideration the economic condition in the Bangsamoro.

Dignity of labor

He also said the new wage order aimed to give dignity to house helps, considered the trusted persons of employers as far as household chores were concerned.

Sema also said that should employers failed to comply with the order, affected ‘kasambahay’ could seek help from his office in the BARMM or from the provincial offices in Maguindanao del Sur, Maguindanao del Norte, Lanao del Sur, BAsilan, Sulu, Tawi-Tawi, the cities of Cotabato, Marawi and Lamitan as well as the Special Geographic Area (SGA).

Among the RTWPB members present during Monday’s signing of the new wage order, which would take effect 15 days after its publication in newspapers of regional circulation, were Sema, Trade and Industry Minister Abu Amri Taddik, BARMM Planning and Development Agency Director General Mohajirin Ali, management representatives Anwar Malang and Haton Bandila, and workers representatives Jonathan Acosta and Norlyn Odin.