Asia Urged to Enhance Protection for Domestic Workers

When it comes to recognising the rights of domestic workers, Asia is lagging behind.

About 40 percent of domestic workers globally are employed in Asia, yet most of the region lacks legislation to protect these workers.

Meanwhile Uruguay is considered a symbolic place for leading labour unions to come together.
 
It was the first country to ratify Convention 189 - adopted two years ago, the treaty established the first global standards for domestic workers.
 
In September, the convention came into legal force, and so far, ten countries have signed on.
 
The Philippines is the only Asian country on that list.

Nisha Varia from Human Rights Watch explains why the Philippines is leading the way in Asia.
 
“I think one of the reasons that the Philippines have been in the forefront is the strong organising by domestic workers on the ground,” Varia says.

“They have been lobbying their government for many years and it's become an issue where the government feels like it has to respond. The Philippines also depends a lot on the money that domestic workers send to home, when they migrate to Saudi Arabia or Kuwait or Europe and they see how it's in the best interests for domestic workers to be protected when they work abroad and they realised that they needed to ensure the same basic protections at home.”
 
While the Philippines is on the front foot, Asian governments have shown a reluctance to protect domestic workers despite progress in other parts of the world.
 
The region's slow reform is the subject of a new report tracking the progress of the Domestic Workers Convention, two years on.
 
The report by the International Domestic Workers Network, the International Trade Union Confederation and Human Rights Watch documents the wide range of abuses that domestic workers still face, from unpaid wages to sexual abuse.
 
Critically, workers many of whom are women and young girls, are excluded from national labour laws and their services are not recognised.
 
“There are deeply entrenched social attitudes which view domestic work as something that's not really work,” Nisha Varia explains.

“People see domestic workers as helping out or they'll claim that they're part of the family, even though they are not treated as part of the family. Domestic workers associated with traditional women's roles of care giving and this has always been undervalued, so it's really linked to gender discrimination, and a devaluing of work associated with women.”
 
Tim de Meyer was involved in the adoption of the workers convention two years ago.
 
He's an expert on Labour Standards and Labour Law with the International Labour Organisation.
 
“I think you need to consider the fact that in terms of recognising rights of domestic workers, many countries have to come from a very low base line and when I say a very low base line, I mean first and foremost having the services of domestic workers, actually having them recognised as work.”
 
The Philippines passed a law in January this year improving minimum wage, social security and public health insurance for almost two million domestic workers.
 
There are signs of progress elsewhere in the region, albeit incremental.
 
Indonesia introduced a bill to parliament early this year and is closest to ratification.
 
India have extended a health insurance scheme and included workers in a law prohibiting sexual harassment in the workplace.
 
Vietnam, Cambodia, Singapore and Thailand are also introducing some reforms.
 
But progress is slow and a number of key protections still don't exist.
 
Tim de Meyer says Asian countries have always been cautious in their approach.
 
“When you took about domestic workers, you're actually talking about a very significant number of workers, you're talking also about a category of workers that has been very invisible in the past. It is only now that gradually some of the abuses are coming to light and are better realised. In some cases, the abuses relate to some of what for the ILO are the fundamental standards, the ability to form unions, the ability to be protected against forced labour. I think the political will is being sharpened. The awareness is being sharpened and in some parts of Asia, I would say the grassroots movement, the civil society organisations are stepping into that and I think all of that together probably explains for these.”