No global data document gender-based violence at work. But across the board, gender-based violence remains one of the most tolerated violations of workers’ human rights. Some 35 percent of women over age 15—818 million women globally—have experienced sexual or...
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.
Mexican Domestic Workers Launch Job Contract Campaign
The Mexican domestic workers union, SINACTRAHO, last week launched a far-reaching campaign to ensure domestic workers across Mexico are covered by employment contracts. “Our goal is to have 10,000 workers sign a formal contract with their employers, in time for...
Hundreds Join Migrant Worker Forum in Mombasa
Some 200 people from the Kisauni neighborhood in Mombasa, Kenya, took part in a forum on migrant worker rights Saturday, where those who had gone abroad for work described the harsh conditions they endured and how the labor brokers who signed them up often lied about...
![CAMBODIA: Vocal Coalition Makes Legal History (2013)](https://www.solidaritycenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/Report-cover41.jpg)
CAMBODIA: Vocal Coalition Makes Legal History (2013)
Cambodia’s nascent independent labor movement and human rights organizations worked to revise a labor law proposed in 2011 that would have significantly rolled back worker rights—and a Solidarity Center report describes how they did it. English (PDF) Arabic (PDF)...
![TUNISIAN WOMEN: Sustaining the Fight for Equal Rights (2013)](https://www.solidaritycenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/Report-cover-image4.jpg)
TUNISIAN WOMEN: Sustaining the Fight for Equal Rights (2013)
In 2011, Tunisian women helped spur protests and end autocratic regimes in Tunisia and throughout the Arabic-speaking world. Today, a Solidarity Center report finds Tunisian women remain in the forefront of ensuring democratic change in their country during the...
![Unions Create Democratic Space in Zimbabwe (2013)](https://www.solidaritycenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/Report-cover8.jpg)
Unions Create Democratic Space in Zimbabwe (2013)
Unions in Zimbabwe are ensuring the concerns of working people are heard—while highlighting issues feeding into the nation's poverty crisis, a Solidarity Center report finds. English (PDF) Arabic (PDF) French (PDF) Spanish (PDF) Sources
![Solidarity Center Haiti Earthquake Relief Fund: Workers Helping Workers Recover and Rebuild. Final Report, January 2010-March 2013](https://www.solidaritycenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/Haiti-cover1.jpg)
Solidarity Center Haiti Earthquake Relief Fund: Workers Helping Workers Recover and Rebuild. Final Report, January 2010-March 2013
Following the devastating January 12, 2010, earthquake in Haiti, the Solidarity Center established a relief fund to route donations from U.S. unions and workers to Haitian workers and their families in need. The final report on these efforts, released on the third...
![The Plight of Shrimp-Processing Workers of Southwestern Bangladesh (2012)](https://www.solidaritycenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/pubs_bangladesh_shrimp_repo1.gif)
The Plight of Shrimp-Processing Workers of Southwestern Bangladesh (2012)
Bangladesh’s labor code addresses pay, working hours, and on-the-job conditions. However, in the shrimp-processing industry, the code is not being adequately enforced. Bangladeshi shrimp-processing workers—the majority of whom are women—still face inadequate health...
![Gender Equality and Labor Movements: Toward a Global Perspective (Rutgers, 2012)](https://www.solidaritycenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/Photo_Gender-Equality_Cobbl2.jpg)
Gender Equality and Labor Movements: Toward a Global Perspective (Rutgers, 2012)
A critical review of the English-language research on gender equality and labor movements highlighting “best practice” case studies around the world most relevant to those engaged in building democratic and humane societies. This Solidarity Center report is part of a...