HIMALAYAN NEWS SERVICE

A report released today said roughly 40 per cent of the world’s domestic workers are employed in Asia and have been facing horrific abuses.

The International Domestic Workers Network (IDWN), the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), and Human Rights Watch said this while releasing the report worldwide.

The groups have released the report assessing progress since the 2011 adoption of the Domestic Workers Convention, a groundbreaking treaty entitling domestic workers to the same basic rights as other workers. “Domestic workers from India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, and Cambodia experience horrific abuses,” said Nisha Varia, senior women’s rights researcher at the Human Rights Watch. “These governments should speed up reforms to introduce long-overdue protections for both domestic workers at home and those migrating abroad.”

According to the report, more than 25 countries have improved legal protections for domestic workers, with many of the strongest reforms in Latin America. In Asia, the Philippines adopted comprehensive legislation protecting domestic workers in January 2013 and is the only Asian country to have ratified the Domestic Workers Convention. “The momentum of ratifications and improved laws in Latin American nations and a number of other countries shows that governments are capable of protecting domestic workers,” said Sharan Burrow, general secretary of the ITUC. “Governments that have lagged – particularly in Asia and the Middle East – need to act without delay.”

Under Convention No 189 of the ILO, a domestic worker is “any person engaged in domestic work within an employment relationship.” Domestic work is defined as “work performed in or for a household or households”.

Their work may include tasks such as cleaning the house, cooking, washing and ironing clothes, taking care of children, or elderly or sick members of a family, gardening, guarding the house, driving for the family, and even taking care of household pets.

A domestic worker may work on a full-time or part-time basis; may be employed by a single household or by multiple employers; may be residing in the household of the employer (live-in worker) or maybe living in his or her own residence (live-out). A domestic worker may be working in a country in which she/he is not a national, thus referred to as a migrant domestic worker.

Even though a substantial number of men work in the sector – often as gardeners, drivers or butlers – it remains a highly feminised sector: more than 80 per cent of all domestic workers are women. Globally, one in every

At present, domestic workers often face very low wages, excessively long hours, have no guaranteed weekly day of rest and at times are vulnerable to physical, mental and sexual abuse or restrictions on freedom of movement. The exploitation of domestic workers can partly be attributed to gaps in national labour and employment legislation, and often reflects discrimination along the lines of sex, race and caste.

According to the ILO, domestic workers comprise a significant part of the global workforce in informal employment and are among the most vulnerable groups of workers. They work for private households, often without clear terms of employment, unregistered in any book, and excluded from the scope of labour legislation. Currently, there are at least 53 million domestic workers worldwide, not including child domestic workers, and this number is increasing steadily in developed and developing countries. Eighty-three per cent of domestic workers are women.

Deplorable working conditions, labour exploitation, and abuses of human rights are major problems facing these workers. The ILO undertakes to protect the rights of domestic workers, promote equality of opportunity and treatment, and improve working and living conditions.

Its global strategy consists of strengthening national capacities and institutions including policy and legislative reforms; promoting the ratification and implementation of the Domestic Workers Convention, 2011 (No 189) and Recommendation (No 201); and facilitating the organisation of domestic workers and employers.

Sorry state

• Roughly 40 per cent of the world’s domestic workers employed in Asia

• Domestic workers from India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, and Cambodia experience horrific abuses

• In Asia, the Philippines is the only country to have ratified the Domestic Workers Convention

Published on: 29 October 2013 | The Himalayan Times