All news: domestic workers

Contribution to the ILO International Women’s Day Panel: Empower Rural Women - End Hunger and Poverty by Ms. Sue Longley, Coordinator...

Examining conditions of domestic workers and child domestic workers in East Java

Domestic workers also represent the single largest group of female salaried workers toiling away in households of others in their own country or abroad. Despite of the importance of the role of domestic workers, domestic work is still not recognized...

Campaign for domestic workers’ rights gathers pace

The theme for this year’s International Women’s Day, 8 March, is “Empower Rural Women, End Poverty and Hunger”. One path that many rural women take to escape poverty is to become a domestic worker in a big city household or overseas. Yet when they...

Skills training holds rural families, communities together

Story of Tran Thi Thanh, a 43-year-old grandmother in My Loc, who acquired her first-ever passport and will use it to find work in Taiwan as a domestic worker.

Feature story

Questions and answers on the hidden reality of children in domestic work

The recently approved ILO Convention No. 189 and Recommendation No. 201 on decent work for domestic workers aim to protect and improve working and living conditions of millions of workers worldwide, who have few – if any – labour rights. Many are...

Feature story

Questions and Answers on the Convention Concerning Decent Work for Domestic Workers

The landmark treaty setting standards for the treatment of domestic workers that was adopted at the International Labour Conference in Geneva has been widely hailed as a milestone. The Convention and accompanying Recommendation on decent work for...

Committee on Domestic Workers: Comments by Barbados Workers’ Delegate

100th ILO annual Conference decides to bring an estimated 53 to 100 million domestic workers worldwide under the realm of labour standards

The government, worker and employer delegates at the 100th annual Conference of the International Labour Organization (ILO) on Thursday, 16 June adopted a historic set of international standards aimed at improving the working conditions of tens of...

Press release

100th ILO annual Conference decides to bring an estimated 53 to 100 million domestic workers worldwide under the realm of labour standards

The government, worker and employer delegates at the 100th annual Conference of the International Labour Organization (ILO) on Thursday, 16 June adopted a historic set of international standards aimed at improving the working conditions of tens of...

Committee on Domestic Workers: Ms MOORE (Worker, Barbados; speaking on behalf of the Worker Vice-Chairperson of the Committee on Domestic...

Press release

Swiss President says “There is a renewed sense of urgency for social justice” in speech to ILO annual conference

Social justice and the role of the International Labour Organization (ILO) in international governance weres at the centre of the speech given on Wednesday by Ms. Micheline Calmy-Rey, President of the Swiss Confederation at the 100th International...

Statement by H.E. Jakaya Mrisho Kikwete, President of the United Republic of Tanzania, at the 100th Session of International Labour...

Check against Delivery

Recognition for India’s invisible workers

Domestic workers play an important role in the economy and they allow others to go out and earn money. Yet they remain invisible, unprotected and their contribution is often not recognized. At the forthcoming International Labour Conference (in...

UN Youth Champion to interact with young domestic workers

UN Youth Champion, Monique Coleman is on world tour to promote the UN’s global observance of the International Year of Youth. She will meet with young domestic workers, at the ILO Country office, New Delhi on 8 April 2011.

Kigali Seminar on Domestic Work

T&T's National Union of Domestic Workers receives ILO and UNIFEM support

With financial support from UNIFEM, the ILO has been providing technical advice to NUDE for the development of a strategic plan for the period 2011-2015 and the corresponding action plan for the first two years.

Hong-Kong: A New Federation of Asian Domestic Workers

Landmark Arab trade union meeting on formalizing domestic work

The inclusion of domestic workers in labour protection regimes may soon be the norm in Arab states, as the international campaign ‘Decent Work for Domestic Workers’ gains regional momentum.

Regional conference towards a domestic workers’ convention

Domestic workers’ organizations in conjunction with national trade union centres and trade unions from all over Asia will gather to discuss the issues relating to domestic workers’ labour rights and how best to fill the protection gaps inherent in...

Turning old: A domestic workers' nightmare

By Sindhu Menon. Tithli Ben migrated to Delhi in 1969 at the age of 19 after marriage to Dumru Bhai, a mechanic working in a small workshop in Mehrauli in South Delhi. They settled in a small jhuggie (makeshift shelter) near the workshop. Dumru...