Indian Church forum demands legislation for domestic workers

New Delhi, 4 March 2014: Workers India Federation (WIF), the official forum of laborers under the Catholic Bishops' Conference of India, has asked the government to ratify an ILO convention to ensure basic labor rights to domestic workers.

The convention 189 came into force in September last year around the globe extending basic labor rights such as regular payment, work hours, leisure time and vacation. But India has not ratified it on the ground that it needs to ensure that a legal framework is in place to implement the provisions of convention before ratifying it.

The WIF also demand government of India to bring comprehensive legislation and approve the pending national policy so that every domestic worker and their families enjoy descent work and protection.

Five national workers movements and eight regional labor commissions from across India attended the two-day WIF general body meeting that ended Sunday at CBCI Centre in New Delhi.

They discussed issues concerning the unorganized sector workers and in a special way on the issue of domestic workers.

India has an estimated 40 to 50 million domestic workers and this large work force continues to exist without any legal rights and social security systems, the participants noted.

Bishops' Labor Commission chair Bishop Oswld Lewis opened the meeting. Several Church officials attended and spoke at the meeting stressing the need to defend workers' rights.

Joseph Jude from Kochi was elected as new president of WIF, Alvin Devos from Pune as general secretary and Jesuraja from Dharmapuri as treasurer during the meeting.
Source: UCAN