Campaign for Domestic Workers

Campaign for Domestic Workers

There are more than 100 million domestic workers worldwide. They are also known as ‘servants’, ‘domestic helpers’, ‘nannies’, ‘cooks’, ‘housekeepers’, ‘cleaners’, among other names. They work more than 10 hours a day in poor or slavelike conditions; most are abused, underpaid, underfed and overworked. They have no opportunities to study or develop professional skills. Domestic workers are isolated in homes of their employers and could not organise towards improving their situation. It is time the law recognise them as workers so they may enjoy labour rights such as weekly days off, fair wages, paid leaves and holidays, right to organise, occupational health and safety, social insurance.
Domestic workers are workers.
Domestic work is decent work.
Labour rights for all!

The Committee for Asian Women, Asian Domestic Workers Network and Homenet Thailand coorganised a regional conference on “Domestic Workers are Workers: Decent Work for All” on August 26-27, 2008 in Bangkok, Thailand. As part of the conference’s campaign launching, the participants joined labour activists, NGO supporters and domestic workers in Thailand in a public action to raise the voice of domestic workers in Asia. We collected supportors’ sigitures during the public action.

If you would like to support this campaign:

1) Leave your support message below this post.
2) Or sign up to Domestic Workers are Workers campaign website to support.
3) If you use Facebook, you can also join our facebook group “domestic workers are workers” to support and receive updates.
—- We will compile the signitories collected from both internet campaign and onsite public actions. The sigitories will be presented with appeal letters by the end of 2008 to governments in 7 countries/areas in Asia* to advocate legistration to protect domestic workers’ rights.
* 7 countries/areas in Asia: Thailand, The Philippines, Hong Kong, Indonesia, India, Sri Lanka, Nepal.