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Domestic Worker Rights
Kenya, domestic workers, ILO Convention 189, Solidarity Center

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 predominately 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.

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Kate Conradt
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(+1) 202-974 -8369

 

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Publications

Kenya’s Jayne Njoki Helps Lead Future of Young Workers

As a young woman working in her company’s IT department, Jayne Muthoni Njoki was frustrated by what she says were employer attempts to push her around because of her youth and sex. But rather than quit her job, which she contemplated, she ran for a leadership position...
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Campaign Vows to End Gender-Based Violence at Work

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...
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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...
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Kenya’s Jayne Njoki Helps Lead Future of Young Workers

Kenya’s Jayne Njoki Helps Lead Future of Young Workers

Aug 24, 2017

As a young woman working in her company’s IT department, Jayne Muthoni Njoki was frustrated by what she says were employer attempts to push her around because of her youth and sex. But rather than quit her job, which she contemplated, she ran for a leadership position...

Campaign Vows to End Gender-Based Violence at Work

Campaign Vows to End Gender-Based Violence at Work

Aug 3, 2017

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...

Mexican Domestic Workers Launch Job Contract Campaign

Mexican Domestic Workers Launch Job Contract Campaign

Jul 27, 2017

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...

The True Cost of Shrimp (2008)

The True Cost of Shrimp (2008)

Dec 2, 2008 | , ,

In little more than 30 years, the shrimp industry has been revolutionized through an unprecedented increase in efficient production, resulting in tremendous profitability for producers. But the “shrimp boom” is sustained through a staggering, largely hidden, cost to...

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Justice for All (2008)

Justice for All (2008)

Jul 26, 2008 | ,

"Justice for All" examines the effects of global economic integration in the late 20th century on worker rights, including the growth of the informal economy and migration and human labor trafficking, and looks at how government, corporations and unions can help...

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Domestic Worker Rights | Equality & Inclusion | Informal Economy | Liberia

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