A Household Service Worker's

Life in Lebanon

Imelda was quite relieved though when she learned that the area where she worked as a household service worker for two years was far from the embattled part of Lebanon. So she assured herself that her friends and her employer’s family were safe. At times, however, she would feel anxious because she knew that bombs have no boundaries and could fall elsewhere and tear places apart in just a blink of an eye.
Indeed, the 34-day war between the Hezbollah

HOME AT LAST:OFWs flooded at the airport during repatration at thye height of the war in Lebanon

paramilitary and Israeli forces devastated Lebanon almost completely. It killed over 1,500 civilians and damaged properties and infrastructure. It disrupted normal life across the country and displaced hundreds and thousands of Lebanese, Israelis, and foreign nationals, including OFWs.

Illegal Entry Lebanon, according to the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA), was home to an estimated 11,000 to 15,000 OFWs when the war erupted. Majority were domestic workers and about 60 percent were undocumented. Most of the undocumented, according to OWWA, were tourist visa holders who sought employment after their visas had expired and who were endorsed for work by their relatives.

Imelda herself was not properly documented when she went to Lebanon. She did not go through the mandatory overseas workers’ regulation process because her employment was facilitated by her cousin who works in the country. It was a case of direct hiring and the process was so fast that even her sisters didn’t notice that she had already left for Lebanon. They learned about it only after she called to tell them she was already in Lebanon.

Imelda said that hers isn’t a unique case. There are a lot of OFWs that did not go through the mandatory pre-departure orientation seminar (PDOS) which is a way of checking whether OFWs hold proper working documents and to orient them on the culture of their countries of destination, according to Mr. Teodoro Tutay of OWWA. During PDOS, OFWs bound for any country in the Arab region are informed that women are not allowed to interact with men other than their husbands, and that practicing religion publicly other than Islam is strictly prohibited.

Conditions of Work OFWs are bound to live by the rules and regulations of their destination countries. What’s worse is that they sometimes live by the rules and standards of their employers. For instance, it was reported that most domestic workers in Lebanon can take only one or two days off from work each month. It is also a norm in Lebanon for household workers not to join their employers during meals or to eat much later than the family’s dining time.

The work of household helpers in Lebanon, according to the International Labor Organization study Women Migrant Workers in Lebanon, “entails all household chores with the exception of cooking,” which is usually the responsibility of the madam or female head of the household. “Domestic helpers assist in cooking by cutting vegetables, set the table, serve the meals and clean afterwards, including the washing up, washing clothes, ironing, washing floors, vacuuming carpets, making the beds, tidying, picking up after the children, accompanying their employers to the supermarkets, and looking after the small children.”

True, says Imelda. Some domestic workers in Lebanon practically do almost everything but are paid salaries lower than that received by domestic workers in other parts of the Arab region like Saudi Arabia. The prevailing salary rate for domestic workers in Saudi, according to the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration, is not lower than US$ 200 per month; in Lebanon, monthly wage ranges from US$100 to US$250. Imelda’s salary, in fact, was only US$150 or a little more than P7,500.

Further, the same ILO study revealed that salaries vary depending on the worker’s origin country, language skills and education. Some Lebanese employers pay as high as US$300 to Filipino domestic workers whom they see to be more intelligent, better educated, and are better English speakers than their Sri Lankan or African counterparts. In fact, the highest paid domestic workers in Lebanon are Filipinos, the second largest group of migrant domestic workers in the country next only to Sri Lankans.

Vulnerable Persons It is unfortunate that domestic work is sometimes associated with abuse and maltreatment, particularly among domestic workers in the Arab countries. In 2004, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) reported that OFWs in Lebanon and their living conditions are always synonymous with abuse, violence and maltreatment.

The United Nations (UN) observation best explains why such untoward incidents occur: “Most domestic workers are women who remain excluded from the very scope of labor legislation in almost all Arab league States since their work is done in households (not considered as workplace) of private persons (not considered employees) that cannot be supervised by labor inspectors.”

This is, in particular, true in the case of Lebanon-based migrant domestic workers who are not prohibited from working even without a contract and without valid work or residency permits, making them increasingly vulnerable to abuse. Generally, according to the UN, migrant workers are often the most vulnerable persons in any society, “by virtue of the likelihood that they will have a limited or no social network, little or no education in their host country, little or no familiarity with the laws, customs and practices of their host country, as well as little or no notion of their rights in their host country, or where to seek help when they need it.”

Next Plan These are concerns that the governments of migrant domestic workers should look into and address squarely. For OFWs, the PDOS makes a lot of difference. Those who undergo the PDOS are most likely to know many things about the place where they are going to work and where to seek help in case any problem arises. During the war, for example, those who knew the Philippine embassy and consulate in Beirut were able to ask for help and immediately rescued. The embassy, which was opened in 1996, housed OFW evacuees and managed their successful repatriation with the help of the International Organization for Migration and other non-government organizations.

Despite all the bombings and civil unrest, however, not all OFWs enlisted themselves for repatriation. The cousin who recruited Imelda was among those who chose to stay inLebanon at the height of the war. She just sent Imelda a text message to inform her that she is safe with her employer and that she is not going home only to be jobless in the Philippines.

This has got Imelda thinking. Until now she has no job and finds it difficult to find one despite her two-year computer course. Companies, she believes, prefer young graduates to returning domestic workers who have mastered nothing but cleaning, washing, babysitting and other household services. So working abroad is always a viable option. It’s not therefore unlikely if one day she would surprise her sisters again with a call, this time, from Saudi Arabia. (With a report from Ana Cheza Montana)