EMPHASIZING the right of everyone to have access to education, the head of the Senate committee on labor has called on employers to allow their household workers who want to study to enroll and secure a diploma. Senate president pro tempore Jinggoy Estrada, chairman of the Senate committee on Labor, Employment and Human Resources Development, said that in compliance with the recently enacted Batas Kasambahay or Republic Act 10361, employers must not deprive domestic workers, including nursemaid or yaya, cook, gardener, laundry person and the likes the right to education and training. Estrada said that under Section 9 of Article II of the law an employer must give a domestic worker the chance to finish basic education or access to alternative learning systems and, as far as practicable, higher education or technical and vocational training.

Estrada said the privilege is even more relevant to working children aged 15 to 17 employed as kasambahay.

The premium payments will be shouldered by the employers if the monthly salary of helpers is below P5,000. JEFFERSON ANTIPORDA