Gaining Ground for Migrant Domestic Workers

Employment in private households is the most common occupation for women in our region; accounting for nearly one third of all female employment in Asia Pacific. Domestic work is also the largest driver of labour migration in the region for women trying to escape poverty.

In 2010, under the mounting weight of globalisation led by neo-liberal demands for cheap, flexible and transitory labour, migration pressures have increased. Despite many governments’ increasing reliance on domestic worker remittances as a source of foreign currency, many fail to extend domestic workers the rights and benefits other workers enjoy. A gendered notion of work that links women with the ‘private’ sphere of the home and men with the ‘public’ sphere of paid work and enterprise means that domestic work in amongst the lowest paid, least valued, and least organised work in the region.

As such, APWLD as co-facilitator of the United for Foreign Domestic Worker Rights (UFDWR) coalition, has been a key contributor to the recognition by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) of the need to recognise domestic work as work. One of our key strategies towards this goal is to centre on domestic workers’ right to organise, and its inclusion in an ILO Convention for Domestic Workers. APWLD believes the right to organise is the one right that can unlock all others. Collective representation is essential for the promotion and protection of worker’s rights and can provide an important voice in policy and legislative debates in international fora.

With an active and coordinated global constituency of domestic workers advocating for recognition and protection of their rights, 2010 was an exciting year of outcomes. The ILO produced a draft Convention and Recommendation on decent work for domestic workers, which was supported by a majority of governments – something APWLD ] has been lobbying for since UFDWR formed in 2007. Some governments in our region were not supportive of a Convention, namely Malaysia, Indonesia, India and Bangladesh. We have taken the first campaigning steps to shift their position.  Late in 2010 India unofficially changed its position, potentially signalling a regional shift leading Bangladesh to do the same. The draft Convention will be tabled for adoption at the 2011 International Labour Conference (ILC) where increased advocacy will be crucial to ensure countries maintain their support and the Convention withholds its strength.

Strong domestic worker advocacy over the past few years also resulted in the adoption of a ‘General Comment’ on domestic workers by the UN Committee on Migrant Workers. This strong guidance includes the rights to organise and to collective bargaining as well as including comments specific to undocumented domestic workers and recognition of gender as key consideration in the protection and promotion of migrant worker’s rights.

As the General Comment’s content offers more specific protection for women migrant domestic workers than is negotiated in the ILO Convention, APWLD is hopeful that it will influence the ILO Governing Body meeting in March 2011 and the ILC in June 2011.

“…Recognising that most domestic workers are women and girls and taking into consideration traditional roles, the gendered labour market, the universal prevalence of gender-based violence and the worldwide feminization of poverty and labour migration, States should incorporate a gender perspective in efforts to understand their specific problems and develop remedies to the gender-based discrimination that they face throughout the migration process.”

Strategies and Tools

Domestic Workers and ASEAN
As a cross-cutting initiative in our work and as co-facilitators of the Women’s Caucus on ASEAN, APWLD also works to advance domestic worker rights through advocacy aimed at ASEAN. Through increased networking and advocacy the Women’s Caucus has developed strategic skills to influence national governments and the ASEAN Committee on the Implementation of the ASEAN Declaration on the Protection and Promotion of the Rights of Migrant Workers (ACMW). With partner CARAM Asia, APWLD and the Women’s Caucus has held five national workshops with national groups in Cambodia, Thailand, Philippines, Malaysia and Singapore.

“The Right to Unite”
On behalf of UFDWR, APWLD conducted research on the domestic worker rights and the right to organise across ten Asian countries.  APWLD published the findings in a handbook on domestic worker rights complete with an analysis of the ILO draft Convention in relation to women domestic worker rights. The guidebook identifies gaps, highlights concerns and gives concrete recommendations for change.

Please see our publications page to download a copy of “The Right to Unite”

UFDWR- Did we get what we wanted?

The UFDWR Analysis of the New Domestic Work Instruments- by APWLD and Caram-Asia

The historic ILO Convention on Domestic Workers on 16 June, 2011 marks a critical step for domestic workers globally. However, there is more to be done. This is a critical analysis of the new convention, with recommendations for revised convention text to fully recognise and ensure the human rights of domestic workers are protected and realised. UFDWR Analysis of the New Domestic Work Instruments