29/07/2025
This is the article written by Mr. Theo Panayides on Sunday - 27th July 2025, with the Cyprus Mail
https://cyprus-mail.com/2025/07/27/outsourcing-pain-and-trauma-to-filipina-carers
OUTSOURCING PAIN AND TRAUMA TO FILIPINA CARERS.
For decades theyâve cleaned our homes, looked after our kids and cared for our ailing parents. And theyâre still paid a pittance
Letâs imagine a young Filipino woman. Letâs call her Althea, which was apparently the most common girlâs name in the Philippines in 2023.
What will Althea experience, should she decide to try and find work in Cyprus?
For a start, sheâll be part of a thriving community. There are around 18,000 Filipinos on the island, according to Ester Beatty, chairperson of the Federation of Filipino Organisations in Cyprus, though that includes Filipinas married to EU citizens and their second-generation offspring.
Those 18,000 include skilled workers like bakers and chefs (City of Dreams in Limassol employs many Filipinos). Althea, however, is far more likely to become a domestic worker â which, till a couple of years ago, was the only option, and still accounts for the majority of jobs in the community.
This will mean paying money to an agent in the Philippines, a hefty âplacement feeâ which may be âŹ1,500-2,000, says Beatty. Althea might have to borrow, and will spend her first few salaries trying to pay back this money.
Thatâs especially because the salary sheâll be getting in Cyprus is so low.
The minimum salary for third-country nationals working as maids or carers is âŹ460 a month gross. âThe employer is allowed to deduct 25 per cent of the gross salary for food and accommodation, if they live with their employer,â says Beatty, plus â8.2 per cent for social insurance contribution, and Gesy which at the moment I think is 2.6 per centâ.
By the time everything has been deducted, itâs about âŹ320 net â which has been the case for decades now. âSince the 1990s, the salary hasnât changed at all.â
Two caveats here. First, thatâs the minimum salary, and an employer is free to pay more if they wish. There are many stories of employers â especially in Limassol, and especially Russians or Israelis â who prefer to have their maids living out and pay them a normal, four-figure salary. Most, however, go for the minimum.
The second caveat has to do with Filipinas in particular. Even though Nepalis, Vietnamese, Sri Lankans and so on must accept the âŹ320, the Philippines government has decreed that âa Filipino domestic workerâs net salary should be âŹ400,â says Beatty. âAnything below âŹ400, they will not sign the contract.â
This is good news for Althea, who gets a little extra â usually a gross salary of âŹ595, translating to âŹ400 net. Itâs still a pittance, though, especially when most of it has to go back to support family in the Philippines.
The usual argument is that, while a domestic workerâs salary is low for Cyprus, it allows them to live like a queen in their home country.
Thatâs not really true, though, says Beatty. âPhilippines is becoming the call centre of the worldâ at the moment. Many locals work for global corporations, earning good money. Besides, itâs only common sense that a salary thatâs stayed the same since the 90s will be less impressive now than it was in the 90s.
Still, though, while in Cyprus, Althea wonât have to pay for rent, bills or food â and sheâll still end the month with âŹ400 in her pocket! Surely thatâs a pretty good deal for a low-income worker?
Beatty agrees that many people earning minimum wage on the island (âŹ900 gross for new hires, up to âŹ1,000 after six months) probably have it worse.
âBut those who are earning the minimum salary, they are working seven to eight hours a day,â she points out. âOK, you have some bills to pay from your own pocket â but you can also do some extra jobs.â
Domestic workers, on the other hand, âare working like slaves. They start from six oâclock, until probably eight oâclock at night â cleaning the house, cooking, looking after the children, everything⊠Itâs supposed to be seven hours per day, six times a week. But nobody really follows that.â
The other issue is the kind of work theyâre forced to do.
Althea may have no problem cleaning her employerâs house â but itâs a much bigger responsibility to care (often for the same salary) for the employerâs elderly parent who suffers from Alzheimerâs, without even having trained as a nurse.
Forty-nine-year-old Beth is a real-life Althea. Sheâs been here for 14 years, she told the Cyprus Mail â and her duties now include looking after âyiayiaâ six days a week (the old ladyâs daughter takes over on Sunday).
Grandma gets âconfusedâ, and doesnât always remember Bethâs name. She can no longer dress herself, or clean herself, or take a bath on her own. Beth does all that, and also sleeps in the next room in case of a night-time emergency.
âSometimes you feel itâs not normal, this arrangement,â she admits â but she doesnât mind overall, because her employers are âvery good peopleâ and because âfor a long time I worked for [grandma]⊠Itâs like a family now, for me. So I donât have any regrets, because I feel like sheâs my second mother now.â
Thatâs a good attitude, but it shouldnât obscure the enormity of whatâs changed.
Having a maid to help clean the house is just menial work. Looking after a sick parent with dementia, though, is among the most painful and traumatic things in a personâs life.
Employers in Cyprus are basically outsourcing that pain and trauma to a stranger, feeling virtuous without doing anything themselves â and paying peanuts for it.
Letâs say Althea is stressed out by this difficult work, and wants a change. Or perhaps sheâs just bored of being a domestic worker. After all, says Beatty, âa lot of Filipinas who come and work here, most of them have a college degreeâ.
Other EU countries offer more in this regard. Many Filipinas are moving to Malta, for instance â âbecause in Malta they are able to work in any industry, as long as they are capable of doing itâ. Countries like Poland or Slovakia allow them to work in a factory, with fixed hours and a much better salary.
In Cyprus, though, the rules are rigid: once a domestic worker, always a domestic worker. Even if Althea managed to obtain a âreleaseâ from her employer, the only way to change job is by getting married to a Cypriot or EU citizen, after which she could pay her own social insurance and hopefully freelance.
And what if Althea keeps going regardless? What if, after many years of work in Cyprus, she decides to apply for permanent residence, or even citizenship by naturalisation? Alas, her chances of success are slim.
âI can count on my fingers [of one hand] how many Filipinas managed to get citizenship without being married,â says Beatty. Even in those few cases, âitâs because their employer had connections, and supported them⊠I can count with my five fingers!â
Again, other EU countries make it easier. Here, however, the process takes years, criteria are strict (though having to learn Greek is âfair enoughâ), and the outcome, in almost all cases, is that applications are simply rejected with no reasons given.
At this point, Althea may have been here for 20 years or more. No longer young, she decides to go back home, a place she recalls only vaguely. Beth, for instance, has only been back to the Philippines three times in 14 years, the last time for her older sonâs graduation.
The only consolation is that now â after years of paying social insurance, or having it deducted from her salary â sheâs entitled to a lump-sum pension from the Cyprus government.
Even this, however, isnât always easy according to Beatty, who tells in excruciating detail of her recent efforts on behalf of a repatriated Filipina â a case of being made to ârun around in circlesâ, and getting pinballed from one civil servant to another.
âThe Cypriot government will not just give it open-handedly to anybody,â she explains. âYou have to fight. You have to argue.â
Itâs enough to make Althea wonder if itâs worth finding work in Cyprus at all.
THANK YOU THEO FOR HIGHLIGHTING THE EXPLOITATION AND UNFAIR TREATMENT OF THE MAJORITY OF DOMESTIC WORKERS IN CYPRUS!
Letâs imagine a young Filipino woman. Letâs call her Althea, which was apparently the most common girlâs name in the Philippines in 2023. What will Althea experience, should she decide to try and find work in Cyprus? For a start, sheâll be part of a thriving community. There are around&helli...
