 | Campaign for Domestic Workers | Jul 21, 2008 |
There are more than 100 million domestic workers worldwide. They are also known as ‘servants’, ‘domestic helpers’, ‘nannies’, ‘cooks’, ‘housekeepers’, ‘cleaners’, among other names. They work more than 10 hours a day in poor or slavelike conditions; most are abused, underpaid, underfed and overworked. They have no opportunities to study or develop professional skills. Domestic workers are isolated in homes of their employers and could not organise towards improving their situation. It is time the law recognise them as workers so they may enjoy labour rights such as weekly days off, fair wages, paid leaves and holidays, right to organise, occupational health and safety, social insurance. Domestic workers are workers. Domestic work is decent work. Labour rights for all! ACT NOW to support this campaign: 1) Join our public action at 1pm - 5pm, 26 August 2008. The public action will be at Siam Square and MBK.Street drama and exhibition story boards will be shown. Domestic workers activists will wear aprons with supporters’ signatures from different Asian countries in the action to collect more signitures. Press conference will be held here. 2) Sign here to support. 3) Join our group (domestic workers are workers) in Facebook to support and receive updates.   | Sign to Support This Campaign | |
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 | “This is an outstanding achievement for women workers, a victory that has always been theirs from the start of the struggle for equal rights.”- Menaha Kandasamy, CAW Chairperson.
A groundbreaking International Convention on Domestic Work was adopted at the 100th session of the International Labour Organisation on Thursday- June 16 in Geneva. ILO Convention 189 is deemed as “historic” by ILO Director-General Juan Somavia, who saw the voting of 396 delegates in favour of the Convention, accompanied by ILO’s 201st Recommendation.
The global treaty is a landmark to protect domestic workers, according to Human Rights Watch. Migrant Forum in Asia cited that the “long overdue recognition of domestic work as work legitimizes the claims of domestic workers to dignity in the workplace, respects their labour rights, and renders them visible to authorities tasked with ensuring that labour standards are enforced. This Convention recognizes the need for a reinvention of the way our societies view domestic work.”
MAP Foundation in Thailand reported migrant workers are celebrating the Treaty especially the clause guaranteeing its application to migrant domestic workers --“calling on (ILO) members to cooperate with each other to ensure the effective application of the provision of the convention for migrant domestic workers. Also of particular importance to migrant domestic workers is Article 9 which calls on members to ensure that domestic workers are entitled to keep possession of their travel and identity documents. (Report IV (2B) Decent Work for Domestic Workers, ILO 100th Session 2011).”
CAW Chairperson Menaha Kandasamy who attended the Geneva meeting stressed that for the first time domestic workers are no longer called informal workers, and would be entitled to protection and recognition in every country employing them. She added that abstentions by Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand meant that more work needed to be done at the national and in particular at the ASEAN level. “While we were not surprised at the turn of votes by these countries we are nevertheless encouraged by the support shown by Indonesia, Sri Lanka, the Philippines, Bangladesh and India.”
CAW is the regional secretariat of the Asian Domestic Workers Network (ADWN) whose members were active participants in the ILO conference. ADWN, formed in 2004, has been advocating for the ILO Convention in more than 12 countries in the region.
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 | Qiqo Simbol -- IT/Knowledge Management Officer, Focus on the Global South Mediatheque Division, CUSRI, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand. |
 | Dr. Nicola Piper, Associate Director, Centre for Migration Policy Research, Swansea University, UK |
|  | Blog | Feb 15, 2011 |
On 15 February 2011 the death of 14-year old domestic worker Sunarsih ten years ago in Indonesia will be commemorated by women workers, migrant and local domestic workers, women’s rights advocates and labour support groups all over Asia. Committee... more | Photos | Oct 14, 2010 |
Regional Conference towards an ILO Convention on Domestic Work
23 Photos
National Domestic Workers Advocacy Training
22 Photos
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