FILIPINO welfare agencies have been inundated with calls for help and emergency accommodation over the Christmas break.
Large numbers of domestic helpers' contracts have been terminated during the holidays.
The chairman of the Asian Domestic Workers' Union, Remy Borlongan, said the situation was so bad this year the Philippine Consulate's welfare division had referred between 40 and 50 cases to the union because it could no longer cope with the work.
Ms Borlongan said many employers chose to terminate contracts rather than keep their domestic helpers on while the helpers or the families were on holidays.
'The employers think because they are going away that they do not want to keep paying their domestic helpers so they terminate their contracts and then hire some more after the holidays,' she said.
She said similar problems arose during the Lunar New Year.
'Sometimes, at Lunar New Year, they will hire domestic helpers to help them clean their houses and get ready for New Year and then, after that, they terminate them,' she said.
