Brazil guarantees rights for domestic workers

(Vatican Radio) Brazil's Congress has approved a constitutional amendment that guarantees domestic workers the same labor rights as any other worker.

The amendment approved Tuesday night is expected to be ratified by President Dilma Rousseff early next week.

“The legislation will basically limit the working hours to eight hours a day, 44 hours a week. This is critical, because one of the main concerns of domestic workers around the world is that their working days are often without end,” says Claire Hobdan, a technical officer on domestic work for the International Labour Organisation (ILO). “The remuneration that they receive never really takes into account overtime, or night work in many cases, so this will really allow a lot of people . . . to actually have a better balance between their work life and their family life which also is a means of realizing their human rights. So the effects should actually be quite significant.”

She said the legislation will also extend certain aspects of social protection, including social security and health insurance, to domestic workers. “All of these things are rights that most workers have, that workers have generally, so it will do a lot towards increasing their equality in the country.”

Listen to the full interview of the ILO’s Claire Hobdan with Christopher Wells: