Migrant domestic workers in Hong Kong, Special Administrative Region of China, must live with their employers, according to a court ruling this week that rejected a case by a Philippine migrant worker who argued the rule violates Hong Kong SAR’s Bill of Rights and...
The Solidarity Center joins with unions in Kenya and around the world in championing ratification of the ILO global treaty Convention 189 covering domestic worker rights. Credit: KUDHEIHA
Millions of domestic workers are employed in countries where they are excluded from national labor laws, including limits to working hours, minimum wage and overtime pay. Domestic workers, who are predominantly women and sometimes children, toil invisibly in private homes. Some live on their employer’s premises where, away from the public eye, they often are subject to abuse. Nearly one in five domestic workers are international migrants.
The Solidarity Center supports unions around the world as they assist domestic workers in gaining their rights on the job such as in Honduras and Ukraine, where workers formed the first domestic workers union in their countries with the assistance of Solidarity Center partners.
Together with the International Domestic Workers Federation (IDWF) and the U.S.-based National Domestic Workers Alliance, the Solidarity Center supports leadership, gender equality and rights-based training for domestic workers to strengthen their ability to advocate for improved wages and working conditions.
Many domestic workers migrate for jobs to the Gulf countries and the Middle East, and the Solidarity Center works to advance their rights with union partners in origin and destination countries, such as the Kuwait Trade Union Federation (KTUF), which launched a migrant worker office that assists domestic workers and other migrant workers experiencing wage theft and other forms of exploitation.
The Solidarity Center, which joined with unions and rights organizations in championing passage of the 2011 International Labor Organization’s global treaty (Convention 189) covering domestic worker rights, assists unions in pushing for adoption of the treaty in their countries to ensure domestic work is legally recognized and valued. The Solidarity Center also supports domestic worker unions achieve labor rights in countries such as Mexico, where union partners won the right to written contracts and a ban on employing workers younger than age 15.
Ensuring Access to Justice for Workers in Forced Labor
When Fauzia Muthoni arrived in Qatar from Kenya to work as a receptionist and earn money to support her family, the labor agent traveling with her informed Muthoni the job was in Saudi Arabia and escorted her to another plane. She tried calling her family, but...
Decent Work Forum: ‘With a Union, We May Fight Together’
Ending human trafficking. Ensuring all employers treat workers fairly. Giving voice to migrant workers around the world. Creating a world in which women are treated equally to men. These are some of the broad goals participants at the Solidarity Center Forum on Decent...
![International Labor Migration: Re-regulating the Private Power of Labor Brokers (2015)](https://www.solidaritycenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/Migration.Reregulating-the-Power-of-Labor-Brokers.jpg)
International Labor Migration: Re-regulating the Private Power of Labor Brokers (2015)
In this review of initiatives to regulate labor brokers, the authors find that state and civil society efforts to address migrant worker exploitation point to potential new policies, most effectively led by state-backed regulatory frameworks. Download here.
![Irreconciliable Differences? Pursuing the Capabilities Approach within the Global Governance of Migration (2014)](https://www.solidaritycenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/Migration.Cababilities-Approach-in-Global-Governance-of-Migration.jpg)
Irreconciliable Differences? Pursuing the Capabilities Approach within the Global Governance of Migration (2014)
This report on global labor migration challenges the current “triple win” paradigm in global migration policy through a worker rights lens, and argues that when applying the now-accepted "capabilities" approach, the international development community must focus on...
![Solidarity Center 2013 Annual Report](https://www.solidaritycenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/Annual-Report-2013-cover.jpg)
Solidarity Center 2013 Annual Report
Download here.
![Africa Trade Unions and Africa’s Future: Strategic Choices in a Changing World (2014)](https://www.solidaritycenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/Africa_Strategic-Choices-report.jpg)
Africa Trade Unions and Africa’s Future: Strategic Choices in a Changing World (2014)
Download here.
![Exploiting Chinese Interns as Unprotected Industrial Labor (June 2014)](https://www.solidaritycenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/Asia-Pacific-Journal-cover_6_14.jpg)
Exploiting Chinese Interns as Unprotected Industrial Labor (June 2014)
Earl V. Brown, Jr. & Kyle A. deCant Solidarity Center Labor and Employment Counsel Earl Brown and co-author Kyle deCant examine the legal issues surrounding the growing numbers of China's industrial interns, the latest class of “cheap” labor to be deployed in...
![NIGERIA: Empowering Women, Transforming Society (2014)](https://www.solidaritycenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/Nigeria_cover.jpg)
NIGERIA: Empowering Women, Transforming Society (2014)
A unique grassroots coalition based in the Niger Delta, working with unions and other local non-governmental organizations, is providing a platform for women and young people to effectively engage in the democratic political process, hold local lawmakers accountable...