Introduction and Key Recommendations for an ILO Convention on Domestic Work
Submitted by R.E.S.P.E.C.T Network
Campaigning for the Rights of Migrant Domestic Workers in Europe and Internationally
Amsterdam, May 2009
Summary on proposed Key recommendations
In the European context therefore, RESPECT highlights the following key
considerations in preparing the proposed ILO Instruments:
1) The recognition of Domestic work: The recognition of domestic work as
proper work and the inclusion of all domestic workers (women and men,
young or old, national citizen or migrant, live-in or live-out) as an integral part
of the workforce with an immigration status that recognises migrant domestic
workers.
2) Comprehensive legal protections: Labour legislation that applies to all other
workers to be applied to the domestic workers and to ensure equal protection
under the law – related to written contracts, agreed wages, hours of work and
rest, health insurance and other social benefits, freedom of mobility and to
form self-organisations and join trade unions, freedom to change employers, as
well as provisions covering the unique circumstance of live-in domestic
workers regarding living conditions and privacy.
3) Effective mechanisms of enforcement of labour legislation: This should
include instruments protection against unjust termination; against the risks of
homelessness of live-in domestic workers; paid holidays and sick leave days.
4) Effective protection for migrant domestic workers: Migrant domestic workers
should have a work permit independent of their employer to ensure avoidance
of abuse and violation of rights regularly experienced in ‘tied’ employment.
Domestic work is not a category for migration in most European countries.
Therefore while migrant workers are on the one hand delivering an enormous
contribution – economically and socially - to needed and important work in
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European societies, on the other hand they are vulnerable to exploitation (such
as long hours of work, low payment and to personal abuse by members of the
families) as a consequence of the separation of juridical residence and work
permit.
5) Effective protection for Domestic Workers in the employment of the
Diplomatic corps: Domestic workers in the employment of the Diplomatic
corps should be protected by existing and new labour legislation and be able to
access legal redress in the case of unjust or abusive treatment. Specific
mechanisms should be put in place ensuring a judicial process in relation to
diplomats who are responsible for abusing their domestic workers.
6) Effective protection for ‘au pairs’: This is a particularly vulnerable sector of
people who work in the private home. It has been a practice to accept that au
pairs undertake “light household work” as exchange for accommodation while
undertaking a cultural exchange. However there is increasing evidence that
this framework is exploited to access a flexible and cheap source of domestic
workers. The ‘au pair’ framework should therefore be strongly regulated.
7) Provisions to protect domestic workers against physical, sexual and
psychological violence: These provisions include access to immediate and
confidential redress as well as support for and access to legal redress.
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What is the RESPECT Campaign for the rights of Migrant Domestic Workers?
The RESPECT network facilitates the empowerment of MDWs as main actors in the
campaign for their rights as a sector. As a common campaign strategy, RESPECT member
organisations pursue the following objectives:
• Recognition of work in the private household as proper work
• Ensuring the protection of the rights of all MDWs as workers, whether live-in or liveout
• Putting in place an immigration status related to their work as migrant domestic
workers
At the national level, where immigration law is still determined in the EU, this campaign is
contextualised according to the prevailing immigration regime and the policy on work and
resident visas applied to migrants undertaking work in the private household as indicated in
point 2 above.
Even where migrant domestic workers have regular work visas, it is clear that work in the
private household remains vulnerable to abuse as is seen in the research carried out both by
Kalayaan even after the change in UK immigration in policy in 1979 (Box 1) and by KASAPIHellas
in Greece (Box 2). Additionally, the immigration status of MDWs (often hard won in
long campaigns) is often arbitrarily put under pressure when additional changes in
immigration legislation is being planned.
Both at national and international level, RESPECT regards working with Trade Unions as a
high priority. Throughout the development of the campaign for the rights of MDWs, Trade
Unions have responded and opened membership to this vulnerable sector of workers.
RESPECT member organisations have consistently worked with the trade unions and
together we have been able to achieve changes in labour and immigration legislation and
gain significant breakthroughs for the rights of MDWs – in the UK, Greece, Spain, Italy, and
most recently in Ireland.
In Switzerland, the Geneva Forum for Philippine Concerns (GFPC) together with other
migrant organisations in the Contact Centre Swiss Immigrants (CCSI) campaigned with the
Trade Union Syndicat Interprofessionnel de Travailleuses (SIT) achieved a “Procuration” in
2005, whereby the Geneva government allows undocumented migrants to continue to live
and work if they demonstrate membership of SIT. In a related development, SIT also
provides integrated services for its members, including health care and access to social
benefits.
In 2006, the ABVAKABO FNV trade union in the Netherlands has also opened its
membership to MDWs and in early 2009 the MDW membership has been Bondgenoten
FNV. The International Trade Union Centre (ITUC) also called4 its affiliates to ensure
representatives of the countries on the ILO Governing body support the proposal to draw up
an International Convention specifically to protect domestic workers.
RESPECT and its network members actively campaign for the ratification of the UN
Convention for the Rights of all Migrant Workers and members of their Families as the most
comprehensive International Instrument so far protecting and defending the Rights of
MDWs. We have also held a Dialogue with the UN Special Rapporteur on Migrants
(September 2004 ) and also with the Special Rapporteur on the Convention on the
Elimination of Discrimination against Women (2007) and campaigned for the CEDAW
General Recommendation 27.