Social
Development - Fri Jul 07
2006
Source: IRENE Network
The Committee for Asian Women
together with the IRENE network invites NGOs to participate in
a seminar on legal protection of migrant domestic workers in
Europe to be held from 8-10 November 2006 in Amsterdam,
Holland.
Planned for
8,9,10 November 2006
International Seminar on Domestic
Workers
Place: Amsterdam, Head Office FNV, FNV Mondiaal
(Dutch Trade Unions)
The ICFTU supports the
organisation of this seminar.
PROTECTION FOR DOMESTIC WORKERS!
See the 2-page announcement
in PDF format
“Domestic workers’
employment situation is considered not to ‘fit’ the general
framework of existing employment laws. This is because most
work done by them is generally invisible, done in houses (not
considered as workplaces) of private persons (not considered
as employers). So, domestic workers are not normally
considered as employees, their work is undervalued, and their
working conditions remain, in essence, unregulated. In fact,
some countries not only do not consider household helpers as
workers and exclude them from protection under their national
labour codes, they do not provide them with protection under
any other national law. In some countries they are denied the
right to organise in trade unions. This of course leaves them
vulnerable to abuse.”
Domestic workers stem from
the poorer parts of the population, migrate within countries,
migrate to other countries, are predominantly women, but too
often they are children. Trade unions working on the national
and international level and the NGOs, which network nationally
and internationally, can give the strong impetus for common
strategies towards legal protection of domestic workers like:
fight for an ILO convention
fight for workers’ rights for all domestic workers
fight for ‘work permits for domestic workers’ in receiving
countries
fight for ‘protection for migrant workers, by sending
countries’
stop child labour.
Domestic workers join
organisations in all regions of the world, of which some have
formed regional connections. Within the trade unions there is
a growing attention for unprotected, informal workers,
including domestic workers. The need and notion of connected
work is there. The results expected of international seminar:
Continuation of network activities between the different
NGOs and trade unions
Exchange and harmony of strategies towards the ILO, from
NGOs and trade unions
Action to make ‘domestic work’ a priority area of the
trade unions
Exchange of experiences of organising and supporting
domestic workers
Be a platform for further initiatives.
IRENE
will be the secretariat for the international seminar on
domestic work. An international steering group is build up,
the two organisations which took the initiative for this
event, IRENE and CAW, the Committee for Asian women, both
member of WIEGO, will invite others to work up to an
international seminar on ‘Domestic Workers’. See more information at the CAW web
site
In April 2005 IRENE was one of the
partners in organising the European conference “Out of the
Shadows” on ‘organising and protecting domestic workers in
Europe: the role of trade unions’. The ETUC was the lead
organisation, IRENE coordinated and invited speakers and
participation from NGOs together with PICUM the other partner
in realising this event.
Domestic workers in Europe
partly stem from the countries they work in, partly they have
migrated to the country they work in. There is hardly any
legal protection for all domestic workers. They are often not
seen as ‘workers’.
One reason why one also can’t enter the
EU as a migrant worker on the status of ‘domestic worker’.
Domestic workers are relegated to ‘illegality’ even if there
is a huge demand for their work. (Care work of old parents or
young children, next to many household tasks).
A large
and growing number of domestic workers in Europe come from
countries outside the EU, a major part of them live here with
the only right: to obey their employer(s). See the report
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