Mary Wollstonecraft, author of the Rights of Women, said of having to work as a governess that “few are the modes of subsistence, and those are very humiliating...” She talked of living with strangers who are “so intolerably tyrannical...” and “having to wear a cheerful face or be dismissed”. She felt that “the being dependent on the caprice of a fellow-creature... is yet a very bitter corrective.”
There are an estimated 50 to 100 million domestic workers worldwide who clean, cook, and care for families, children and the elderly in private households.
In a review of 72 countries’ labour laws, the ILO found that 40 percent did not guarantee domestic workers a weekly rest day, and half did not limit hours of work. Many national child labour laws also exclude domestic workers, meaning employers can employ young children and make them labour for long hours, often at the cost of their education and health.
Human Rights Watch’s research on domestic workers in countries as diverse as Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, the United States, Morocco, Guinea, and El Salvador has documented pervasive abuses and labour exploitation, including excessively long working hours without rest; unpaid wages for months or years; forced confinement in the workplace; food deprivation; verbal, physical, and sexual abuse; and forced labour including debt bondage and trafficking. Domestic workers, many of whom are migrants and at least 15.5 million of whom are children under the age of 18, who suffer such abuses typically have little access to redress.
The new ILO Domestic Workers convention guarantees domestic workers labour protections equivalent to those of other workers, including for working hours, minimum wage coverage, overtime compensation, daily and weekly rest periods, social security, and maternity leave. The new standards oblige governments to address the minimum age for children in domestic work and their right to attend school, protect domestic workers from violence and abuse, regulate recruitment agencies and fees, and set out measures for effective monitoring and enforcement.
Discrimination and exploitative practices are deeply entrenched and recognition and respect for domestic workers’ rights will not improve overnight. The first step in a long, difficult campaign for widespread ratification and implementation. Encouragingly, although the process is slow, many countries are reviewing and revising their national legislation to bring it into conformity with the convention. Dozens of countries worldwide have submitted the convention to the appropriate national authorities for review. Uruguay, the Philippines, and Mauritius have been the first to ratify the convention, which will become legally binding in September 2013, and several Latin American countries will likely complete their formal ratification processes soon.
Britain
In the particular case of migrant domestic workers for whom the state, rather than providing protection from the vagaries of employers’ whims, actively enforces the power and control that employers have through immigration restrictions. In the 1980s and 1990s the UK tied the residence permits of domestic workers to their working for a named employer. In 1998 this changed and the UK allowed domestic workers to change employer thus handing them back a little control. In April the Government changed the rules again to remove the most important protection available to domestic workers – their freedom to withdraw their labour and work for someone else. Whereas in recent years domestic workers have been able to flee abuse and find new work to support themselves and their families now domestic workers who escape exploitation find themselves destitute, homeless, reliant on strangers for support and with no way of earning money to support their families. They can no longer change employer, renew their visa or apply for settlement after 5 years.
Once again, like in the 80s and 90s, the UK is allowing wealthy employers to bring their domestic staff to the UK but is unwilling to get involved with the unappetising business of trying to ensure these employers treat these domestic workers in accordance with the law. The UK has left domestic workers high and dry, dependent on the caprice of their employer. A member of the House of Lords characterised the situation as domestic workers being seen simply as part of "the employer’s luggage". The removal of domestic workers’ right to change employer actively increases the power employers have to control domestic workers. The United Nations Special Rapporteur on Contemporary Forms of Slavery has described the situation we have returned to, where migrant domestic workers are not allowed to freely change employers, as one of ‘neo-bondage’ that encourages servitude.
Migrant domestic workers make up a tiny fraction of the long term migrants to the UK each year, 0.5% (this is the amount domestic workers make up of the current net migration total – its approximately 1000 people per year).
Adapted from here and here
There are an estimated 50 to 100 million domestic workers worldwide who clean, cook, and care for families, children and the elderly in private households.
In a review of 72 countries’ labour laws, the ILO found that 40 percent did not guarantee domestic workers a weekly rest day, and half did not limit hours of work. Many national child labour laws also exclude domestic workers, meaning employers can employ young children and make them labour for long hours, often at the cost of their education and health.
Human Rights Watch’s research on domestic workers in countries as diverse as Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, the United States, Morocco, Guinea, and El Salvador has documented pervasive abuses and labour exploitation, including excessively long working hours without rest; unpaid wages for months or years; forced confinement in the workplace; food deprivation; verbal, physical, and sexual abuse; and forced labour including debt bondage and trafficking. Domestic workers, many of whom are migrants and at least 15.5 million of whom are children under the age of 18, who suffer such abuses typically have little access to redress.
The new ILO Domestic Workers convention guarantees domestic workers labour protections equivalent to those of other workers, including for working hours, minimum wage coverage, overtime compensation, daily and weekly rest periods, social security, and maternity leave. The new standards oblige governments to address the minimum age for children in domestic work and their right to attend school, protect domestic workers from violence and abuse, regulate recruitment agencies and fees, and set out measures for effective monitoring and enforcement.
Discrimination and exploitative practices are deeply entrenched and recognition and respect for domestic workers’ rights will not improve overnight. The first step in a long, difficult campaign for widespread ratification and implementation. Encouragingly, although the process is slow, many countries are reviewing and revising their national legislation to bring it into conformity with the convention. Dozens of countries worldwide have submitted the convention to the appropriate national authorities for review. Uruguay, the Philippines, and Mauritius have been the first to ratify the convention, which will become legally binding in September 2013, and several Latin American countries will likely complete their formal ratification processes soon.
Britain
In the particular case of migrant domestic workers for whom the state, rather than providing protection from the vagaries of employers’ whims, actively enforces the power and control that employers have through immigration restrictions. In the 1980s and 1990s the UK tied the residence permits of domestic workers to their working for a named employer. In 1998 this changed and the UK allowed domestic workers to change employer thus handing them back a little control. In April the Government changed the rules again to remove the most important protection available to domestic workers – their freedom to withdraw their labour and work for someone else. Whereas in recent years domestic workers have been able to flee abuse and find new work to support themselves and their families now domestic workers who escape exploitation find themselves destitute, homeless, reliant on strangers for support and with no way of earning money to support their families. They can no longer change employer, renew their visa or apply for settlement after 5 years.
Once again, like in the 80s and 90s, the UK is allowing wealthy employers to bring their domestic staff to the UK but is unwilling to get involved with the unappetising business of trying to ensure these employers treat these domestic workers in accordance with the law. The UK has left domestic workers high and dry, dependent on the caprice of their employer. A member of the House of Lords characterised the situation as domestic workers being seen simply as part of "the employer’s luggage". The removal of domestic workers’ right to change employer actively increases the power employers have to control domestic workers. The United Nations Special Rapporteur on Contemporary Forms of Slavery has described the situation we have returned to, where migrant domestic workers are not allowed to freely change employers, as one of ‘neo-bondage’ that encourages servitude.
Migrant domestic workers make up a tiny fraction of the long term migrants to the UK each year, 0.5% (this is the amount domestic workers make up of the current net migration total – its approximately 1000 people per year).
Adapted from here and here
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