Committee for Asian Women demands Asian governments and the International Labour Organization (ILO) to recognise domestic workers as workers and legislate protection for domestic workers’ labour rights.

The contribution of domestic workers to the economy and development of their sending countries is unnegligible. However, their rights as workers have not been recognised. A research by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) showed that only 16 out of 65 countries they studied had legislated protection for domestic workers.

Wages for domestic workers are often below the minimum standards of the country. Domestic workers work almost everyday with very long working hours, usually more than 12 hours a day. They are neither entitled to any overtime compensations, nor included in social security system. They are not able to organised and report their problems in time, as they are working inside the homes of their employers.

One of the reasons causing domestic workers’ vulnerability is that they are not recognised as employees by law. Recognising domestic workers as workers by the government and the society is the first step towards claiming labour rights. Legislation is urgently needed to help domestic workers to negotiate with their employers for fair working hours, overtime compensation, decent wages, weekly days off, occupational health and safety protection and social security. They can also form unions and organisations to better their working conditions. Indonesia and the Philippines are currently working on draft legislations. The ILO is also drafting a convention on domestic workers’ labour rights. 

Together with domestic workers, we demand:  

1. Governments should include domestic workers in national labour legislation and social security system. The legislation should make domestic workers’ wages fair, limit their working hours, entitle them with holidays and days off, protect their occupational health and safety rights, provide them with maternity benefits, and protect their rights of organising

2. National laws or ministerial regulations should be legislated to protect labour rights of domestic workers.

3. Governments should create mechanisms for monitoring and intervening domestic workers’ working condition. Unions for domestic workers should be allowed in the national tripartite bodies.

4. The ILO should ratify the international convention on rights of migrant workers and their families.