Gulf countries are revising their labour laws to include domestic helps on the backdrops of approval of International Labour Organisation (ILO) Convention 189 last week. According to Kuwaiti New Agency, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Bahrain and Egypt have starting changes in their labour laws to grant basic labour rights to domestic helps, private drivers and caregivers.

Earlier, there was no labour rights to them. Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries have already started efforts to bring national laws in line up with international standard, said Saudi Labour Ministry official Nadil Mohammad.

According to him, GCC will ratify the Convention 189 after changes in national laws in next two years.

“It can take time but GCC will ratify the convention because GCC governments are convinced on that domestic workers are workers not servants,” he is reported as saying.

GCC countries – Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and United Arab Emirates – along with Lebanon and Jordan have about 1.5 million foreign domestic helps and around 2,00,000 from Nepal.

Published on: 26 June 2011 | The Himalayan Times