Domestic workers

Chile ratifies the Domestic Workers Convention

Chile is the nineteenth ILO member State and the tenth member State from the Latin and Central American region to ratify this instrument

Actualité | 10 juin 2015
On 10 June 2015, the Government of Chile deposited with the International Labour Office the instrument of ratification of the Domestic Workers Convention, 2011 (No. 189). Chile is the nineteenth ILO member State and the tenth member State from the Latin American region to ratify this instrument that seeks to improve the working and living conditions of tens of millions of domestic workers worldwide. This ratification brings the number of instruments ratified by Chile to 61.
In transmitting the instrument of ratification, the Chilean Minister of Labour and Social Protection, Ms Rincón, stated: “The Domestic Workers Convention calls on ratifying member States to adopt measures to promote and realize the fundamental principles and rights at work of these workers as well as to ensure equal treatment between domestic workers and workers generally in relation to normal hours of work, overtime compensation, periods of daily and weekly rest and paid annual leave.”

In receiving the instrument of ratification of Convention No. 189 by Chile, the Director General of the ILO, Mr Guy Ryder, stated: “Chile’s today ratification of the Domestic Workers Convention confirms and strengthens the leading role of Latin America in endorsing the Convention that offers long overdue protection to the shadow female-dominated workforce often excluded from national labour laws, and therefore deprived from basic rights that the majority of workers enjoy. In promoting decent work for domestic workers, the Convention guarantees not only their fundamental principles and rights at work but also their right to fair conditions of employment and decent working and living conditions, as well as the rights related to working time and wages, occupational safety and health and social security protection, including maternity protection. The ratification is also another step taken by the Government of Chile on behalf of domestic workers and the protection of their rights and reinforces measures already taken at the national level, including the adoption in 2014 of legislation that aims to improve the working conditions of this vulnerable category of workers. I hope that this ratification will be a good example for other countries to follow thereby encouraging further ratifications of the Convention No. 189 in the near future.”

More information on Convention No. 189 and ILO’s work on domestic workers may be found at /global/topics/domestic-workers/lang--en/index.htm