WUNRN
Lebanon – Launch of First Domestic Workers Union in Lebanon
A migrant domestic worker holds up a placard
during a parade in Beirut, to support the rights of migrant domestic workers in
Lebanon, ahead of May Day, April 29, 2012. (photo by REUTERS/ Mohamed
Azakir)
Author: Florence Massena - March 25,
2015
In their fight against abuse and violence, around
200 foreign female domestic workers launched the first domestic workers union
of Lebanon, with the help of the Federation of Trade Unions of Workers and
Employees Union (FENASOL), an organization that has worked with foreign
domestic employees for the past four years to make the government consider
their rights. The union is the first of its kind in the Middle East and North
Africa, but was still not recognized by the Ministry of Labor two months after
its official creation.
The women who pushed for the founding of the
domestic workers union can be found outside Beirut. In the gym of the College
des Freres Unis school in Salouni, on March 15, well-dressed Sri Lankan women
set up their annual Sri Lanka Women Society's Day. Mala, a domestic worker who
has been in Lebanon for 33 years, is the organizer of the event, which has
today a different feel.
“I'm the vice president of the new workers
union and today we celebrate its creation, in addition to our special women's
day,” she told Al-Monitor. “With the syndicate, we can now reach more girls and
help ourselves. There are too many things to do. We need to talk about safety,
working hours … It's human rights.”
In her opinion, “We [domestic workers] help
the Lebanese people in the home, and they can help us getting our rights.” Some
Filipino workers came to support them on this day of traditional celebrations,
as did Gemma, who declared herself “a unionist.”
She worked for 22 years as a maid in Lebanon
before deciding to resign and fully dedicate herself to the union. “How can I
fight for my rights if I work all the time?” she asked. “Now we are only
getting stronger. There is no answer from the government, but we will succeed,”
she added before joining the stage and sing the new anthem of foreign workers
in Lebanon: “Solidarity forever/The union makes us strong.”
As for now, Labor Minister Sejaan Azzi has
not accepted the syndicate to get licensed, nor declared it illegal. In
Lebanese law, the matter is not that clear: Article 7 of the Labor Code
stresses that construction workers, house workers, peasants, fishermen and
family businesses cannot organize themselves, meanwhile Article 92 says that all foreign
workers with a license and a visa are allowed to organize themselves.
The problem is that the vast majority of
services and home care in Lebanon are carried out by migrant workers, around
200,000 according to the nongovernmental organization Migrant Rights. In 2010, a
report issued by Human Rights Watch highlighted the urge to protect foreign workers
through tougher legislation.
The following year, the International Labor
Organization (ILO), along with FENASOL, asked the Lebanese government to sign
the Domestic Workers Convention
and Freedom of Association and
Protection of the Right to Organise Convention. “Although Lebanon voted in
favor of it, it never signed it,” Castro Abdallah, president of FENASOL, told
Al-Monitor.
“The government passed the matter on to
parliament, but there was never a meeting to answer the case, so it remains
postponed. In 2013, in coordination with ILO, we started some programs with
migrant workers to build a syndicate. In December 2014, six of them
officially asked the labor minister to authorize the creation of the union, a
question that remains unanswered.” One major problem is the Kafala system, by
which each domestic worker arrives in Lebanon under a sponsor's family,
although “this is not even mentioned in the law,”
Abdallah said.
The Bangladeshi ambassador to Lebanon told
the Daily Star that as for the workers' respective embassies, it seems that
they face issues while dealing with the Lebanese authorities
when it comes to the workers' rights. Other embassies, such as the
Ethiopian one, end up suing for abuse. The
Philippine government also issued a law prohibiting employment agencies and
employers from charging recruitment fees and making them liable for payment of
wages and provision of benefits.
However, the matter is pretty urgent, as
stated in a report issued by Kafa
in 2014, based on interviews with 100 women from Bangladesh and Nepal. “Most of
them didn't have any information on the tasks, the salaries and even the
working hours,” Maya Ammar, Kafa's communications officer, said. “They are then
very vulnerable, which is for us a case of human trafficking.”
The association joined the cause quickly,
giving the migrants space and tools to find a solution, and also
supported Nari, a community of Nepalese female activists.
“The domestic workers created a network through community events, and the
message spread to those who are not allowed to leave their employer's house,”
Ammar said.
She added, “But they are still very dependent
on their employers, who control every aspect of their life. The problem is
mostly based on the sponsorship system that puts the Lebanese families in
charge before the authorities of their employee's actions, without mentioning
the corruption of the recruitment agencies, the financial investment they
engage in and profits they aim to realize. In this situation, the families are
often scared that something goes wrong, so they are tough.”
For Ammar, the solution would come “from a
stricter surveillance of the [recruitment] agencies, because a legalized
relationship would help a lot.” But this is limited because, according to her,
“you cannot get rid of racism and abuse against women that easily."
Meanwhile, FENASOL and the union fought and
managed to close 12 recruitment agencies that had been the subject of
complaints from clients and domestic workers. In only three months, more than
300 women joined the union, but there is still a lot to do. Malika Begum, from
Bangladesh, killed herself on March 19 at the house she was working in, after
her wish to return home was denied.