Protecting the Rights of Domestic Workers – What is the role of the EU?

On 17 October 2012, SOLIDAR hosted a roundtable on the role of the EU in promoting the rights of domestic workers that called on the EU and its Member States to ratify the ILO Convention C189, which is a crucial step towards making decent work and social protection a reality for domestic workers and recognizing their valuable contributions. Domestic work is work, affording domestic workers the same labour and social rights as well as freedom of association as any other workers. Domestic workers, of whom many are women and migrants, must not be used as gap fillers for declining social security systems and demographic change. With widespread labour conditions in this sector, that have to be described as modern day slavery, the EU Member States must live up to their commitment made in June 2011 when they adopted of the ILO C189 at the 100th ILO International Labour Conference.