Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 2023, published 112nd ILC session (2024)

Protection of Wages Convention, 1949 (No. 95) - Philippines (Ratification: 1953)

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Article 6 of the Convention. Workers’ freedom to dispose of their wages. Further to its previous request on the need to ensure that the national legislation does not impose mandatory remittances on Filipino migrant workers, the Committee notes that in its report, the Government indicates that the “mandatory remittance” is imposed to protect the welfare of families, dependents and beneficiaries of Filipino migrant workers and to ensure that the foreign exchange earnings of these workers are remitted through authorized financial institutions of the Philippine Government in line with the country’s economic development programme, aimed at alleviating poverty. While noting the information provided by the Government on the reasons for such practices, the Committee recalls that “the system of compulsory remittance occasionally imposed on workers employed abroad serves as a vivid reminder of the real risk of abuse to which the most vulnerable categories of workers may be subjected, and of the need to forcefully reaffirm the inalienable character of the right of workers to receive their wages directly and in full, and to spend them as they please” (2003 General Survey on protection of wages, paragraph 210). The Committee once again requests the Government to take the necessary measures to bring its legislation into conformity with Article 6 of the Convention and to keep the Office informed of progress achieved in this respect.