Domestic Workers Speak Out

The National Union of Domestic Employees (NUDE) participated in an International Conference, held from November 8 to 10, at the headquarters of the FNV Trade Union Federation, Amsterdam, Netherlands.

The theme of the conference was “Protection for Domestic Workers” which was attended by domestic workers and representatives of domestic workers, trade unions, associations and regional/international networks, global unions, national trade unions and supporting NGOs from around the world.

Common outrage was expressed by domestic workers and their representatives with regard to:

 The continuing failure to recognise domestics as workers under employment legislation in many countries;

 The exploitation of domestic workers across the globe, particularly of highly vulnerable migrant workers (many forced to be undocumented) and children who do this work;

 The lack of recognition of the contribution that domestic workers make, without which societies and economies could not function/

Domestic workers from South Africa, Peru, Bolivia, the Philippines and the USA, who were involved in self-organising with other domestic workers in their different organisations, spoke on their experience as domestic workers, the difficulties in organising and the different strategies they used in getting attention from policy-makers. Domestic workers from Peru and Bolivia felt strongly about the name “domestic workers”; they felt it should be “household workers”.

The National Union of Domestic Employees, IPROFOTH from Peru and CNV International from the Netherlands made presentations on the struggle for legal reform. The International Labour Organisation (ILO) reported on the ILO research on projects connected to legal rights of domestic workers, the position of migrant domestic workers and the position of child domestic workers.

What was most important was the ability of NUDE to make contacts with other domestic unions and trade union federations and other international organisations like Anti-Slavery International, who were also present. The South African Domestic Services and Allied Workers Union, IUF and ICFTU, now called the International Trade Union Centre (ITUC), interviewed NUDE for their newsletter. NUDE was also invited by CONLACTRAHO to apply for membership in their trade union federation for domestic workers in Latin America.

Most participants present were demanding that a resolution be brought forward to demand an ILO convention for domestic workers. The participant from Namibia Domestic and Allied Workers’ Union was vocal on the convention issue.

The meeting ended with the plan of an interim working group with representatives of the different regions to oversee all plans and commitments made at the international conference, and has the task of investigating the possibilities for greater international activity for the rights of domestic workers worldwide.