The Solidarity Center issued the following statement in celebration of International Day of Care and Support:
Today, on the International Day of Care and Support, we honor and celebrate the millions of workers who provide essential care services, from domestic work to child and elder care to home and community health care. Across the world, this work is largely done by women, migrant workers and racialized groups — people who have constantly had the value of their work undervalued and overlooked. Care providers have fought hard over decades to improve their working conditions and advance their rights. But so much remains to be done.
Domestic workers advocated for the adoption of a key International Labor Organization (ILO) standard for protecting and promoting the rights of domestic workers (Convention 189). Care workers were among the leading labor movement voices calling for an international treaty on ending gender-based violence and harassment (Convention 190). Care workers are winning country-level ratification of these treaties. But we’ve also seen staunch opposition from companies and governments to accepting and implementing these standards to ensure dignity and fairness.
In many economies with a shortage of care workers, governments and employers are promoting labor migration to fill the gaps. Yet, too often, migration policies and practices ignore the rights of the workers who migrate. We will continue to work in solidarity with migrant care workers and the unions and organizations that represent them to ensure that governments promote fair regular migration pathways that ensure full worker rights and options for family unity and permanent residence while also preserving the ability for care workers to stay in their home countries.
We know this industry will continue to evolve. The next generation of care workers already use app-based services to find work or have tech increasingly integrated into their jobs. As we look to next summer’s International Labor Conference, we will continue to advocate for public investments in the care economy, the adoption of social protection and anti-discrimination policies, and the recognition that care workers have the right to organize freely and collectively bargain. We stand ready to support workers and their unions as they organize and fight for their rights — no matter what the next frontier of care work brings.
Care work is essential for all of us. It makes all other kinds of work possible. The workers who care for us and our loved ones deserve respect, dignity and decent work. Achieving fair and decent work standards within the care economy is one of Solidarity Center’s key goals in our programs worldwide and is necessary for ensuring quality care for all. As we look to the year ahead, we are proud to stand with unions, care workers themselves, and our partners as they fight for the rights and respect that these critical members of our social and economic fabric deserve.