International Domestic Workers’ Day 2025 in Italy: caring for those who care for us

16 June 2025

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To mark International Domestic Workers’ Day on 16 June 2025, the ILO organized a series of events in countries across the different regions of the world. Under the theme “Caring for those who care for us,” the ILO Office for Italy and San Marino contributed to a number of initiatives promoted by employers’ organizations, family associations, and trade unions in the domestic and care work sector.

Starting from the recognition that domestic and care work is often undervalued, underpaid, and subject to special regimes that do not grant domestic workers the same rights and protections guaranteed to the workforce as a whole, the Italian initiatives focused on the essential role of workers in the sector. Particular attention was given to informality, which affects almost half of domestic employment relationships; to the conditions of women workers, who make up the vast majority of the sector’s workforce; and to the situation of migrant workers, who account for more than two thirds of all people engaged in domestic and care work.

On the occasion of the International Day, employer organizations organized a series of events. ASSINDATCOLF shared data from a recent study on the additional demand for migrant labour in the domestic care sector. The study, “Estimating the Additional Labour Demand in the Domestic Sector in Italy for the 2026–2028 Triennium,” was preceded by the paper Working Without Recognition: The Reality of Undeclared Domestic and Home Care in the EU, produced by ASSINDATCOLF in collaboration with the European Federation for Domestic Workers and Home Care (EFFE) and launched in Brussels on 21 May 2025.

Presentation of the 2025 Report “Laboratory on Home, Family and Domestic Work,” Rome, 16 June 2025.

In collaboration with the National Social Security Institute (INPS), which released new data from its Observatory on Domestic Work, Nuova Collaborazione focused the Day on the strategic role of domestic work as a driver for quality care services, particularly in respect of long-term care for older people and/or persons with illness and disabilities. The Day also provided the opportunity to launch the study “Domestic Work and Training: Strategies to Bridge the Gender Gap and Enhance Welfare for Families,” produced with the Luigi Einaudi Research Centre in Turin.

INPS–Nuova Collaborazione Conference, Rome, 18 June 2025.

DOMINA promoted and sponsored the second edition of the national domestic work fair (VESTA), held in Rome on 5 June 2025. With the aim of providing a platform for partnership development and knowledge exchange, VESTA fosters dialogue among partners with the view to contributing to the development of the sector, to the visibility of domestic work, and to the professional development of those working in domestic and care work. In addition to a series of debates held in the event’s plenary sessions, for the first time a number of exhibition spaces were organized for VESTA’s partners, along with thematic workshops on skills and certification; training for caregivers and professionals in elderly care; the impact of demographic change on families’ demand for domestic and care work; innovation and the silver economy; and home safety and energy efficiency.

On the trade union front, FILCAMS CGIL organized a debate on the intersectionality of gender, migration and informality. Held in Rome on 16 June under the patronage of the ILO Office for Italy and San Marino, the event “Care Beyond the Walls” aimed to shed light on the dignity of domestic workers from the perspective of the thousands of women and men who, while providing a crucial service to society, are often forced to endure conditions of occupational segregation and irregular employment.

The contributions and testimonies of domestic care workers, guests, and trade union representatives made it possible to take stock of a sector that is fundamental to the care of families and of the most vulnerable persons.

FILCAMS CGIL debate on gender intersectionality, migrant status and informality, Rome, 16 June 2025.

Emanuela Loretone (FILCAMS CGIL) and Gianni Rosas (Director, ILO Office for Italy) analyzed the data and the main challenges facing the domestic and care work sector, while four migrant domestic workers from different regional and local branches of FILCAMS shared their work and life stories.

In closing the event, FILCAMS National Secretary Monja Caiolo highlighted the sector’s future prospects and the need to firmly assert labour rights in the domestic sector, reaffirming the commitment of all FILCAMS structures to the full realization of decent work for all domestic workers.

Domestic workers