Friday, January 17, 2020 Hosted by the Office of U.S. House Representative Pramila Jayapal and the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus, this briefing will focus on the prevalence of trafficking, severe labor exploitation, wage theft and abuse and harassment in...
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Domestic Workers in Mexico Win Landmark Rights Law
Legislation requiring written contracts, paid vacation and annual bonuses for domestic workers passed Mexico’s House and Senate and is expected to be signed into law by President Andrés Manuel López Obrador. The landmark law, which also prohibits employers from hiring...
‘Domestic Workers Work from Morning to Evening with No Break’
I am Marie Constant, I am from Madagascar. I have worked as a domestic worker in Lebanon since 1997. I work for one person only. The work is difficult, especially when we receive guests as we don’t have choice but stay up late working until the guests leave which is...
Marie Constant: Empowering Domestic Workers in Lebanon
Marie Constant has worked as a domestic worker in Lebanon since 1997. Originally from Madagascar, Constant has been fortunate to have a good employer. But most migrant domestic workers are not so lucky. "In general, domestic workers [must] work from morning until...
Domestic Workers Lead the Change
Domestic workers are at the forefront of change in many countries, highlighted by the adoption of the Decent Work for Domestic Workers convention by the International Labor Organization, and the creation of the International Domestic Workers Federation. Yet this...
Domestic Workers Fight for Their Rights in Kenya
Domestic workers are some of the world’s most vulnerable workers, comprising a significant part of the global workforce in informal employment. Lucy Nyangasi, 26, a domestic worker in Nairobi, is one of some 67 million workers who labor in households around the world,...
Racial Equality Tops Domestic Workers Meeting in Brazil
Some 40 domestic workers from 17 countries across North and South America and the Caribbean shared organizing tactics, hammered out resolutions and participated in Solidarity Center training on gender-based violence at work at a recent conference in São Paulo, Brazil....
Kenya Domestic Workers Push for Convention Ratification
Hundreds of domestic workers rallied in front of the Kenya Parliament in Nairobi today, lobbying legislators to ratify International Labor Organization (ILO) Convention 189, Decent Work for Domestic Workers. The effort is part of a larger campaign to improve wages...
Hong Kong, SAR: Migrant Domestic Workers Must Live In
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...
Migrant Domestic Workers Seek Rights in the Middle East
After spending seven years in Jordan as a domestic worker, Suryanti sought to return home to Indonesia to see her family. But her original employer, whom she left under duress, had confiscated her passport and would not give it back, leaving Suryanti in legal limbo as...
Victory for Kenya Domestic Workers Migrating for Jobs
Kenyans going abroad to work as domestic workers will be required to have contracts, salaries and details of their work assignments before they leave, according to the (Kenya) Daily Nation. The draft policy, crafted by the Labor Ministry and the Kenya Union of...
Sisters in solidarity: the communal care of domestic workers in the Middle East
The Domestic Workers Solidarity Network in Jordan is the first initiative of its kind in the country and one of few in the region. The network, whose motto is “Sisters in Solidarity,” aims to serve and support domestic workers through awareness-raising, legal assistance and roundtables in coordination with the Adalah Center for Human Rights Studies.
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...
Kenya Domestic Workers Find Hope with Union
Like many women in Mombasa, Kenya, Alice Mwadzi says for years she barely eked out a living. A lack of jobs in the port city for many means a constant struggle to survive—selling fruit on busy highways or hauling carts stacked with heavy water containers through...
Alice Mwadzi: Door to Door Giving Hope to Domestic Workers
Over the past five years, Alice Mwadzi signed up 200 domestic workers with KUDHEIHA union in Kenya and helps women seeking to migrate abroad, where conditions can be brutal, get jobs in their own country. “I go door to door to give them hope,” she says with...
Cambodia’s Domestic Workers Demand Recognition
Lack of job protections, combined with the invisibility of their work, means many domestic workers toil long hours in unsafe conditions without a minimum wage or access to health care, sick leave or pensions. In Cambodia, domestic workers, who are not recognized as...
Rights Groups Decry Detention of Nepali Domestic Workers
Some two dozen human rights organizations are condemning the detention of two Nepali domestic workers in Lebanon, one of whom was deported. Sushila Rana and Roja Maya Limbu were detained “without formal and clear explanation of the charges levelled against them,”...
Domestic Workers See Gains, yet Struggle for Decent Work
Some 70 countries around the world have taken action to advance decent work for domestic workers in the five years since the International Labor Organization (ILO) adopted Convention 189, the standard covering domestic worker rights. The ILO passed Convention 189 on...
Access to Justice for Bangladeshi Migrant Domestic Workers in Jordan
As part of this project we held a focus group with ten Bangladeshi women migrant domestic workers in Jordan, together with our partners from Solidarity Center. (Op-Ed by Global Alliance Against Traffic in Women)
Afro-Colombian Domestic Workers Empowered
Afro-Colombian domestic workers, historically among the most marginalized workers in the country, are increasingly joining together to improve their working conditions and educate lawmakers and the public about their rights as workers. “Today, it is a breakthrough...