Among the world’s most vulnerable workers are those marginalized within their economies and societies, namely the women and labor migrants who predominate in the informal economy, where they perform valuable work in low-wage jobs as janitors, domestic workers,...
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.
Back at Work, Haiti Garment Workers Risk COVID-19
As garment factories in Haiti begin reopening after shuttering for up to four weeks to prevent spread of the novel coronavirus, workers risk exposure during their crowded work commutes and at factories, while most have not received the wages they were promised during...
Women & Their Unions Stand Strong during COVID-19
In Tunisia, 150 women garment workers self-quarantined in their factory to manufacture desperately needed protective masks, churning out 50,000 a day as the COVID-19 crisis broke out. The South African Clothing and Textile Workers’ Union (SACTWU) reached an agreement...
![Hot trends: How the global garment industry shapes climate change vulnerability in Cambodia (2022)](https://www.solidaritycenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/Hot-Trends-Report.jpg)
Hot trends: How the global garment industry shapes climate change vulnerability in Cambodia (2022)
In response to mounting public pressure, companies have moved rapidly to launch media campaigns highlighting their commitment to a green future. The global garment industry is no different. Behind much of this “greenwashing” remains the reality that the garment supply...
![RECOGNISING THE ILO FUNDAMENTAL LABOUR RIGHTS AT THE WTO: A CALL FOR AN AUTHORITATIVE INTERPRETATION](https://www.solidaritycenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/RECOGNISING-THE-ILO-FUNDAMENTAL-LABOUR-RIGHTS-AT-THE-WTO-A-CALL-FOR-AN-AUTHORITATIVE-INTERPRETATION-pdf-1.jpg)
RECOGNISING THE ILO FUNDAMENTAL LABOUR RIGHTS AT THE WTO: A CALL FOR AN AUTHORITATIVE INTERPRETATION
This memo explains that under current WTO law, the ILO fundamental labor rights should already be protected under the ‘public morals’ clauses of the WTO’s General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) and the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS). Download it...
![WTO Law Aspects of Import Prohibitions on Products and Services Made Using Forced Labour](https://www.solidaritycenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/WTO-Law-Aspects-of-Import-Prohibitions-on-Products-and-Services-Made-Using-Forced-Labour-pdf-1.jpg)
WTO Law Aspects of Import Prohibitions on Products and Services Made Using Forced Labour
All states are obliged under international law to eradicate forced labour within their own territories. However, these obligations do not require states to eradicate forced labour in other states. At most, states are obliged to cooperate with each other to this end....
![The Persistence of Private Power: Sacrificing Rights for Wages (South Africa)](https://www.solidaritycenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/South-Africa.-Domestic-Worker-Rights-Survey.12.2021_Page_01-scaled.jpg)
The Persistence of Private Power: Sacrificing Rights for Wages (South Africa)
"The Persistence of Private Power: Sacrificing Rights for Wages," a qualitative survey of human rights violations against live-in domestic workers in South Africa, is co-published by IZWI Domestic Workers Alliance—a network of domestic workers in Johannesburg that...
![DERECHOS DESCONECTADOS: MIRADA AL TELETRABAJO EN AMÉRICA LATINA](https://www.solidaritycenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Documento-regional-pdf-1.jpg)
DERECHOS DESCONECTADOS: MIRADA AL TELETRABAJO EN AMÉRICA LATINA
The ILAW Network, in partnership with the Friedrich Ebert Foundation (FES) “Toma Partido” project, analyzes existing legal frameworks on telework in Latin America, whether adopted before or during the pandemic. Download it here.
![2021 Annual Report](https://www.solidaritycenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/2021-Annual-Report-Cover-Page.png)
2021 Annual Report
Download here.