Decent work for domestic workers: Towards new international labour standards

The work of caring and cleaning in the home for pay is one of the most important occupations for millions of workers, mostly women, around the world. According to a new ILO report prepared for the June 2010 session of the International Labour Conference, domestic work absorbs a significant proportion of the workforce, ranging between 5 and 9 per cent of total employment in developing countries, and making up to 2.5 per cent of total employment in industrialized countries. Manuela Tomei, director of the ILO’s Conditions of Work and Employment Programme, looks at the working conditions of this global and growing workforce and ways to improve them.