Pinay domestic worker takes labor rights campaign to UN

LONDON – A group of domestic workers led by an award-winning Filipina activist is joining UN talks this week urging the UK government to improve their rights in the country by implementing recommendations from the International Labour Organization (ILO).

UK-based Filipino campaigner Marissa Begonia is representing Justice for Domestic Workers (J4DW), a trade union group, at the UN High Level Dialogue on International Migration and Development on October 3-4 in New York.

“We are here open to dialogue. We are open to provide evidence that we have a big problem,” she told ABS-CBN Europe in London before leaving for the US to attend the meetings.

Begonia, a domestic worker and community leader, is pleading the British government to ratify ILO Convention 189, or Decent Work for Domestic Workers Convention, which came into effect on September 5 after two years of official discussions between workers, employers and governments.

It has been ratified in 10 countries to date, including Bolivia, Germany, Italy, Mauritius, Nicaragua, Guyana, Paraguay, South Africa, Uruguay, and the Philippines.

The UK government, however, has so far refused to sign the convention, saying that certain elements of it are “neither proportionate nor practical.” It also abstained from voting during deliberations on the convention in 2011, alongside seven other countries including Sudan, El Salvador, Panama, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, and Czech Republic.

“By ratifying the ILO Convention189 for Domestic Workers, we are talking about decent work. How can we have decent work if we don’t have decent rights and protection at all?” said Begonia.

“It has all the important rights and protection of domestic workers. In the UK, we don’t have health and safety [provisions] – it is in that convention. Our rights for national minimum wage in the UK are also very difficult because of the family member exception rule.”

Domestic workers are exempted from minimum wage in Britain if employers can prove that they are part of the family, by allowing them to join tasks and activities, and providing them with free food and accommodation.

Begonia believes this is one of the reasons why the UK needs ILO Convention 189, which extends national minimum wage legislation to domestic workers. The convention also stipulates fair working hours with at least 24 consecutive hours of rest every week, the right to health and safety measures in the workplace, equal treatment between all workers, and protection against all forms of abuse.

J4DW claims many domestic workers are subject to exploitation by employers within the UK. The group revealed how they hear of new cases almost on a weekly basis, ranging from physical violence to sexual assault.

“I have no rest and my wages are low,” said Beth, a domestic worker from J4DW who wishes to remain anonymous. She recently joined the group to seek advice on her predicament, after being brought to the UK earlier this year by an employer from the Middle East.

She continued: “My employers are okay, except the working conditions. I work all the time. Sometimes I want to take a break but I can’t. I’m always thinking of my boss. It’s like I don’t have the right to rest.”

Beth believes ILO Convention 189 could improve her working life in the UK, hoping that the country would uphold its reputation on fighting for universal human rights.

“It’s our right to have decent work. I wish the UK would continue the work it has started. I have always thought of England as the best place for human rights, and I used to believe it is the safest country for domestic workers.”

A spokesperson from the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS), which is responsible for employment law in the UK, said that the British government supports the rights of domestic workers.

“The UK government supports the principles in ILO Convention on Decent Work for Domestic Workers. We hope they can help to raise standards and prevent abuses worldwide,” BIS said in a correspondence to ABS-CBN Europe in September 2013.

It added, however, that “ratifying ILO Convention 189 would extend criminal health and safety law, including inspections to private households employing domestic workers, which we consider to be neither proportionate nor practical.”

BIS also confirmed that the UK government has “no plans” to ratify ILO Convention 189.

There are over 52 million domestic workers in the world, according to an ILO report in January 2013. It claims that only 10% of this total is covered by general labor legislation that applies to other workers, and nearly 30%, or 15.7 million, are completely excluded.

The report estimates there are 138,000 domestic workers in private households in the UK, many are Filipino and most are women, excluding those working for diplomat employers. But it points out that this number has fallen in recent years in favor of au pairs, which is considered as cultural exchange rather than migrant work. –Patrick Camara Ropeta, ABS-CBN Europe News Bureau