News and articles on domestic work

  1. ILO in action

    We help migrant domestic workers overcome the pandemic

    15 December 2021

    ILO Senior Labour Migration Specialist, Gloria Moreno-Fontes, speaks from Pretoria about the Southern Africa Migration Management (SAMM) Project, which aims to improve migration management in the Southern Africa and Indian Ocean region. The project is funded by the European Commission and implemented by the ILO in collaboration with the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

  2. World Day Against Child Labour

    Malawi: Finding solutions for child domestic workers

    12 June 2013

    Millions of children around the world, mainly girls, are working in households other than their own, doing domestic work such as cleaning, ironing, cooking and looking after other children and the elderly. According to a new report on domestic work from the International Labour Organization, it's estimated at least two-thirds of these children are working under the legal minimum wage, or in conditions that are hazardous. Often, the working relationship between the child and their employer is ambiguous at best, exploitative at worst. But solutions are possible, even in a place where using children as domestic workers is a long tradition.