Regional Workshop on the Role of Trade Unions in Promoting Decent Work for Domestic Workers in Arab Countries

There are today millions of domestic workers. They represent an important and growing segment of the labour force and their work is enabling others to improve their living standards. The great majority of them are women and many are migrant workers. Since 1948 the International Labour Organization has repeatedly drawn attention to the insufficient or absent protection of domestic workers in labour legislation. In March 2008,following an international campaign by Global Unions supported by ACTRAV, the ILO Governing Body decided to place Decent Work for Domestic Workers as an agenda item for the 2010 International Labour Conference.

The ILO Governing Body proposed that the International Labour Conference develops ILO instruments, possibly in the form of a Convention accompanied by a Recommendation to give this group of workers the protection they so urgently need. Trade unions, in particular the Workers’ Group of the ILO, has been on the forefront to promote the adoption of international standards that can be used to improve the legal environment and enable domestic workers to benefit from the full range of protections and rights related to decent work. A global campaign has been launched to support the adoption of an International Convention accompanied by a Recommendation.

The majority of domestic workers in Arab countries are migrant women from Asian and African countries. They largely live within the households that receive their services, under sponsorship arrangements. Excluded from labour and social security laws in the region, they are viewed as aliens or victims rather than workers at both the level of social perception and policy response. The undervaluation of care work at all levels leads to the undermining of workers performing it.