Good news for Filipinos working as domestic helpers in Switzerland. The government of Switzerland announced that they have set a new minimum wage for domestic helpers. The move was made after numerous reports of widespread salary abuse.

Listed below is the new minimum wage for domestic helpers set by the Swiss federal government;

• Sfr 18.50 (about P815) for workers without experience;
• Sfr 20 (about P881) for those with five years of experience but without professional training; and
• Sfr 22 (about P969) for workers with Swiss-approved professional training.

The implementation of this new law would start next year. The ordinance will be effective from January 1, 2011 to December 31, 2013. According to the POEA before the new rule, there is no recommended minimum wage set for domestic helpers in the said European country.

The POEA said, “The Swiss law does not allow minimum wages except under exceptional circumstances, such as repeated salary abuse in a particular sector."

Meanwhile a report that was published in a Swiss online community news site Geneva Lunch said that the decision to set a minimum salary is made with the goal to protect foreign domestic workers who have start arriving in 2007 from low-wage countries that are part of the enlarged European Union.

The report said, “The federal government undertook a study in 2008, recently completed, and it consulted with the cantons [administrative divisions of Switzerland], who have also studied wages for domestic workers. It concluded that domestic worker salary abuse is widespread and routine.’’