Global March welcomes the adoption by the European Parliament of a resolution on the proposed International Labour Organization (ILO) Convention and Recommendation on the domestic work sector that is expected to be adopted by the International Labour Conference (ILC) in Geneva, Switzerland, on 16 June 2011.

The resolution was adopted on 12 May 2011 and is an important step towards the strengthening of domestic workers’ rights in Europe and worldwide. As the Convention and Recommendation have successfully come through the discussions of the ILC Tripartite Committee on Domestic Work and will now be submitted to the plenary for adoption on 16 June, Global March has been renewing its calls for a major worldwide ratification campaign to be launched as soon as adoption is completed. These new instruments will be meaningless unless they are adopted by all ILO member States given the considerable challenges facing domestic workers worldwide. In addition, it is vital that those countries in which child domestic labour is a problem and figures on hazardous child labour lists proceed to ratification and implementation as quickly as possible.

In this context, Global March welcomes the call by the European Parliament for all 27 EU Member States to quickly ratify and implement the new Convention once adopted to ensure that the entire spectrum of labour and social rights of domestic workers will be respected, including minimum age and protection of adolescent domestic workers from hazardous work. The Parliamentary resolution also calls for the development of a campaign for a step-by-step transformation of precarious workers into regular workers and for the endorsement of a programme aiming to educate workers on the effects and impacts of precarious work, including on occupational safety and health.

For more details on the ILO Convention and Recommendation on Domestic Work, click here

To view the full European Parliament resolution, click here