Decent work and gender: A specific case. The protection of domestic workers in the international community

Abstract

The regulation of domestic work is still a pending task for the International Community. The unique nature of domestic work as an essentially informal sector has had disastrous consequences on the protection of this particularly vulnerable group. Domestic workers normally work under highly precarious conditions for long periods of time. Reports by numerous International Organizations show that in the majority of regions throughout the world, domestic workers have been and are still subject to unending hours of work and receive much lower salaries than other workers. However, the modern-day international community has been witness to two new trends in the sector: firstly, the number of women. The great majority of domestic workers are women. Secondly, the appearance of the so-called “migrant domestic worker”. Globalization and the lack of opportunities in certain countries of the world have encouraged migration to all areas of the planet. The reality is that many of the people that migrate are domestic workers in their country of destination and the majority normally women. The protection and guarantee of the rights of these people in the international community is necessary and urgent. The WLO has played a key role in this regard, with the adoption in 2011 of the Domestic Workers Convention and the Domestic Workers Recommendation (Convention 189 and Recommendation 201). The work carried out by the Organization under the general framework of the recognition of decent work has achieved significant progress in the fight against the deregulation and discrimination of domestic workers. The legal instruments adopted by the WLO have gone a step further in guaranteeing decent work for all workers, including domestic workers, and highlighting the issue of gender and the situation of migrant domestic workers. In recent years, there has been substantial progress in the domestic work sector focusing on international protection and regulation. However, the number of cases of abuse of domestic workers shows that there is still a long road ahead. Convention 189 and Recommendation 201 constitute the first phase, albeit an important one, in the international regulation of decent work for domestic workers and, in particular, for women.