DECENT WORK FOR DOMESTIC WORKERS - Time to turn commitments into action

Domestic workers are almost always women, often migrants and children. Despite the fact that it is one of the oldest and most important occupations for millions of women around the world, domestic work is undervalued and in many countries falls outside the scope of labour legislation.

Too often, domestic workers have no guarantee of a minimum wage or social protection and their rights to form and join a trade union and to bargain in a collective way are violated. As a result many of them are overworked, underpaid, and cases of maltreatment and abuse, especially of live-in and migrant domestic workers, are countless.

Yet in today’s society, domestic work is vital for the economy outside of the household to function. The current levels of growth and welfare would not be the same without the contribution of domestic workers. In particular over the last two decades, the demand for domestic work has been on the rise everywhere. The massive incorporation of women in the labour force, the ageing of societies, the intensification of work and the lack and inadequacy of public policy to facilitate the reconciliation of family life and work clearly underpin this trend.

In the past, several attempts were made at the ILO to improve the conditions of domestic workers. First in 1948, a resolution was adopted on their conditions of employment. Then in 1965, another resolution calling for normative action in this area was adopted but never implemented. In 1970 the first survey ever published on the status of domestic workers across the world made its appearance. But it is only this year, in 2010, that negotiations for an international standard on decent work for domestic workers were initiated.

At the international level the Global Union IUF has spear-headed a relationship with the International Domestic Workers’ Network (IDWN), a network of domestic workers’ organisations and unions affiliated to national centres. The IDWN provides support to domestic workers, plays an important advocacy role at the regional and global level and has largely contributed to making domestic workers more visible. The network assists in the organisation of domestic workers’ unions, functions as a channel to exchange information and organises mutual support and solidarity to advance common political aims at all levels.

National centres and unions can do much to build and support powerful alliances between unions, domestic workers, religious groups and other organisations. When unions and organisations campaign together, the chances are higher for domestic workers to get the protection and recognition they need.

Source:

https://www.ituc-csi.org/IMG/pdf/ITUC_dwd_AnglaisWEB.pdf