International Labour Organisation treaty for Domestic Workers comes into force

(Brussels 10 September) Convention 189 for domestic workers has entered into force, as of the 5th of September, granting basic labour rights to domestic workers across the globe. This sector is predominantly female (83%) – and there are currently at least 53 million domestic workers worldwide, a figure that excludes child domestic workers.

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“The new Convention becomes binding international law as of 5 September. It needed ratification by two ILO member States. To date, eight ILO member States (Bolivia, Italy, Mauritius, Nicaragua, Paraguay, Philippines, South Africa and Uruguay) have ratified the Convention. Since the Convention’s adoption, several countries have passed new laws or regulations improving domestic workers’ labour and social rights, including Venezuela, Bahrain, the Philippines, Thailand, Spain and Singapore. Legislative reforms have also begun in Finland, Namibia, Chile and the United States, among others. Several others have initiated the process of ratification of ILO Convention 189, including Costa Rica and Germany. “All this shows that the momentum sparked by the ILO Convention on domestic workers is growing. The Convention and Recommendation have effectively started to play their role as catalysts for change. They now serve as a starting point for devising new polices in a growing number of countries – recognizing the dignity and value of domestic work,” said Manuela Tomei, Director of the ILO’s Working Conditions and Equality Department. According to an ILO study from January 2013, entitled Domestic Workers Across the World, domestic workers work for private households, often without clear terms of employment, unregistered and excluded from the scope of labour legislation. At the time of the research, only ten per cent were covered by general labour legislation to the same extent as other workers. More than one quarter are completely excluded from national labour legislation. Deplorable working conditions, labour exploitation and human rights abuses are major problems facing domestic workers. Lack of legal protection increases domestic workers’ vulnerability and makes it difficult for them to seek remedies. As a result, they are often paid less than workers in comparable occupations and work longer hours. “Today’s entry into force of Convention 189 sends a powerful signal to more than 50 million domestic workers worldwide. I hope that it will also send a signal to ILO member States and that we soon see more and more countries committing to protect the rights of domestic workers,” concluded Tomei.”

Mindful of the commitment of the International Labour Organization to promote decent work for all through the achievement of the goals of the ILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work and the ILO Declaration on Social Justice for a Fair Globalization, and Recognizing the significant contribution of domestic workers to the global economy, which includes increasing paid job opportunities for women and men workers with family responsibilities, greater scope for caring for ageing populations, children and persons with a disability, and substantial income transfers within and between countries, and Considering that domestic work continues to be undervalued and invisible and is mainly carried out by women and girls, many of whom are migrants or members of disadvantaged communities and who are particularly vulnerable to discrimination in respect of conditions of employment and of work, and to other abuses of human rights, and Considering also 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 marginalized, and Recalling that international labour Conventions and Recommendations apply to all workers, including domestic workers, unless otherwise provided, and Noting the particular relevance for domestic workers of the Migration for Employment Convention (Revised), 1949 (No. 97), the Migrant Workers (Supplementary Provisions) Convention, 1975 (No. 143), the Workers with Family Responsibilities Convention, 1981 (No. 156), the Private Employment Agencies Convention, 1997 (No. 181), and the Employment Relationship Recommendation, 2006 (No. 198), as well as of the ILO Multilateral Framework on Labour Migration: Non-binding principles and guidelines for a rights-based approach to labour migration (2006), and Recognizing the special conditions under which domestic work is carried out that make it desirable to supplement the general standards with standards specific to domestic workers so as to enable them to enjoy their rights fully, and Recalling other relevant international instruments such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime, and in particular its Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children and its Protocol against the Smuggling of Migrants by Land, Sea and Air, the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families, and Having decided upon the adoption of certain proposals concerning decent work for domestic workers, which is the fourth item on the agenda of the session, and Having determined that these proposals shall take the form of an international Convention; adopts this sixteenth day of June of the year two thousand and eleven the following Convention, which may be cited as the Domestic Workers Convention, 2011..

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