Domestic Workers Case Study

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While some countries have introduced labour law protections for domestic workers at various points in time, domestic workers have benefited to a much lesser degree than other workers from advances in labour and social laws. In Western Europe and Scandinavian countries, the working conditions of domestic workers tend to be regulated by special labour laws, with only a few countries, such as France and Italy, having collective agreements on domestic work. By contrast, the Eastern European labour law tradition has not favoured dedicated norms for domestic workers. In Latin America, domestic work regulation, where it exists, usually comes in the form of special laws or dedicated chapters on domestic work within labour codes, while African countries…show more content…
189. However, equally important are measures to ensure compliance with national laws and regulations for the protection of migrant workers, including measures to ensure that domestic workers enjoy effective protection from all forms of abuse, harassment and violence. An important issue to be highlighted in this regard is the prevalence of foreign migrant workers in the domestic work sector. Even where migrant domestic workers are in principle covered by national labour legislation, they might lack effective protection in practice. For instance, workers whose migration status is tied to their employer will in practice hesitate to use complaints procedures against abusive labour practices and violations of their rights when this puts their employment contract and hence their residence status into…show more content…
Some form of legal protection for domestic workers have been introduced and implemented in many countries over the years. This may be in the form of labour laws that cover all workers and thus by default domestic workers. Such coverage does not take into consideration the specific nature of domestic work and therefore the specific needs of domestic workers. Labour laws may contain specific provisions for domestic workers related to the specific nature of this work, or countries may have specific legislation solely governing domestic workers. Policies and laws must be effectively implemented. This needs strong compliance and enforcement mechanisms at the national level to give legal effect to laws and regulations protecting local and overseas migrant domestic workers, and enhance accountability of employers and recruiters to their statutory and contractual obligations to domestic workers. Compliance and enforcement mechanisms include labor inspection measures, effective access to information and courts, specialized dispute resolution mechanisms, sanctions for

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