Caritas Internationalis urges nations to support Domestic Worker Convention

(Vatican Radio) They care for our children and our elderly parents; they wash, cook, iron and clean – all the things we don’t have the time to do because we’re off at our own jobs somewhere else. But the world’s more than 100 million domestic workers have never enjoyed any form of global legal protection, specifically with them in mind, until now.

At least that’s the aim of ILO Convention n. 189, adopted in June 2011 by the International Labour Organisation. The Convention concerning Decent Work for Domestic Workers has already been ratified by three countries (Uruguay, the Philippines and Mauritius) and is due to go into effect in 2013.

The Church’s charitable arm, Caritas Internationalis, is working together with international labour unions and associations of employers to promote adhesion to the Convention. Caritas migrants advocacy officer Maria Suelzu says she would like to see at least 20 countries sign up to the convention for it to become a powerful tool in defence of the rights and dignity of domestic workers.

To get there quickly, she says, Caritas is promoting the “12 x 12” campaign in an effort “to see at least twelve countries ratify (the convention) in twelve months. If we succeed with this, it will be a very good start.”

“Very often domestic workers are not even recognized as workers,” Suelzu says. “In the Middle East, they often suffer human rights abuses and even torture and terrible violence sometimes. However, some countries are starting to ratify it and more will do so soon.” This, she hopes, “will push also these countries to a change of mentality and to ratify the convention in the long term and recognize domestic workers for what they are: they (are the ones who) really make our societies work in a way.”

The Convention, she says, will provide a legal framework in which the rights of domestic workers will be respected – from regulating the maximum number of work hours per day, to guaranteeing a weekly day of rest and yearly holidays and freedom to associate. The convention also provides protections for migrants and minors.

“Most domestic workers worldwide do not have this,” Suelzu states. “They have this in some European countries but not everywhere.”

In this interview by Tracey McClure, Suelzu recounts some of the stories of abuse she has encountered in Lebanon and Sri Lanka, explains the convention in more detail, and some of the national legislative measures countries need to take before ratifying it…

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