At the 100th Session of the International Labour Organisation in Geneva, the Convention on Domestic workers and the accompanying recommendation were
adopted (June 2011) . Only last year the missing rights of a great majority of
domestic workers had been widely discussed and it was decided to proceed with the drafting of
the Convention, which then was put on
the Agenda for this year.
53-100 million domestic workers should benefit from this resolution which requires domestic workers to be afforded the same protections and standards of employment as other workers.
In the introductory text of the Convention, which was adopted on Thursday 16th
by 396 votes to 16, with 63 opting to abstain, it is clearly said that domestic workers make a
significant contribution to the global economy. However, domestic work continues
to be undervalued and workers are often invisible.
"The new ILO standards set out that domestic workers around the world
who care for families and households must have the same basic labour
rights as those available to other workers: reasonable hours of work,
weekly rest of at least 24 consecutive hours, a limit on in-kind
payment, clear information on terms and conditions of employment, as
well as respect for fundamental principles and rights at work including,
among others, freedom of association and the right to collective
bargaining," stated Roma Wong Sang, Information Officer of the ILO
Decent Work Team and Office for the Caribbean.
Most important for all Soroptimist International – domestic work is mainly carried out by women and girls, many
of whom are migrants or members of disadvantaged and marginalised communities. Without legal protection, domestic workers are particularly
vulnerable to discrimination in respect of conditions of employment and of
work, and to other abuses of human rights. Considering that in developing countries with historically scarce opportunities
for formal employment, domestic workers constitute a
significant proportion of the national workforce and remain among
the most marginalised. Soroptimists can make a difference by helping to put the
Convention into action.
Sina
Stiffler
SI representative UN Geneva