Stories
Bangladesh: Domestic Workers Organize to Protect Their Most Valuable Export --- Themselves
— by IDWFED — last modified Dec 22, 2015 02:32 PMMigrant domestic workers from Bangladesh enjoy little protection from their government, but they’re not alone.
USA: MacArthur "Genius" Ai-jen Poo - Organizing America's Domestic Workers
— by IDWFED — last modified Nov 13, 2015 09:31 PMDomestic workers are among the least-protected members of the workforce, excluded from state and federal labor laws. For the last 16 years, labor organizer Ai-jen Poo, now the executive director of the National Domestic Workers Alliance, has been organizing housekeepers, nannies and home health aides to expand workplace protections. Today, Poo became a 2014 MacArthur "genius.”
South Africa: Overworked, Underpaid and In Your House: The Never Ending Exploitation of domestic workers
— by IDWFED — last modified Dec 13, 2014 09:15 PMThey are important drivers of the South African economy, yet domestic workers are still amongst the lowest paid workers today. Their fate was sealed during the apartheid era when “kitchen girls” were just servants with no workplace rights. Little has changed in post-apartheid South Africa we learn from Myrtle Witbooi, the general secretary of South Africa’s domestic workers’ union. Domestic work is still not considered decent work. Poor enforcement of regulations and regressive employer attitudes mean that domestic workers’ rights are being quietly violated every day by people who would never accept similar working conditions themselves. Myrtle Witbooi is the general secretary of the South African Domestic Service and Allied Workers Union (SADSAWU). She is interviewed by Fazila Farouk, the executive director of the South African Civil Society Information Service.
India: Domestic Workers air their woes
— by IDWFED — last modified Jan 21, 2015 04:16 PMThe two-hour-long convention was attended by domestic workers from all over Mumbai and Navi Mumbai who spoke about their grievances. The workers, most of them women, focused on economical and social upbringing. The two most important points were decent wages and education of their children. They spoke about their needs through songs which a group of them sung there.
Philippines/Hong Kong: The forgotten cost of domestic work
— by admin — last modified Oct 24, 2014 03:16 PMThey care for our families and maintain our homes. Our city relies on them. But for many domestic helpers, leaving behind their own country comes with a huge trade-off.
Pakistan: Domestic workers are still struggling hard to get their basic rights to work and live
— by IDWFED — last modified May 21, 2015 02:06 PMIn August 2010, Tehmina, a twelve-year-old girl from Multan district who worked as a domestic help in a house situated in a posh neighourhood in Islamabad, was pushed off a balcony by her employer for demanding salary. She suffered spinal-cord injuries and was paralysed. Though her poor father managed to get a case registered against her employers with the help of civil society and media, he reached an out-of-court settlement with Tehmina’s employers after two months.
Africa: From domestic worker to working for the United Nations
— by IDWFED — last modified Jan 06, 2015 04:37 PMWhen her husband unexpectedly abandoned her, Sindiwe Magona had to rely on her domestic worker salary to support her children. But she responded to her situation with courage, transforming herself into an award-winning author and United Nations employee.
Sri Lanka: Domestic work is real work. Let's end the exclusion today.
— by IDWFED — last modified Oct 21, 2015 07:16 PMThis is a video that was developed for a concert in aid of Domestic Workers in Sri Lanka. Domestic work is often not seen as 'real work', or as a real profession, and the conditions of work are often less than decent.
USA: Domestic workers in New York created wrote poetry on walls
— by IDWFED — last modified May 25, 2015 06:52 PMA woman’s work is never done—it just gets passed on to someone else. For the nannies, housekeepers, health aides and other caregivers in New York’s middle- and upper-class households, work means carrying others’ burdens: tricked-out strollers and spattered baby food, damp diapers, and dry cleaning—or the family secrets tucked behind a genteel exterior. On Sunday, Christine Yvette Lewis captured a bit of the warped edifice of American domesticity and colored it with memories of her native Trinidad. Taking a paintbrush to the wall of an old cottage, she depicted an island house from her homeland, and below, scrawled a scene from the adopted home where she works today: “Push Pale Pampered Baby in Ornate Pram Along Pompous Avenue … A Tale of Two Cities.”
Global: Domestic Workers' Growth, visibility, and power
— by IDWFED — last modified Jan 31, 2016 07:03 PMThree years ago, our members joined domestic workers from all over the world to win the passage of the International Labor Organization’s Convention 189 on Decent Work for Domestic Workers. It was a historic recognition that domestic workers are entitled to the same rights and respect as other workers. Today, after passing Domestic Workers Bills of Rights in California and Hawai’i, and steady work to pass similar legislation in Massachusetts and Connecticut, our members are back at the International Labor Organization (ILO) in Geneva, this time to expand rights, recognition and respect to all workers in the “informal” sector, and to ensure that no workers are subject to forced labor.
Mexico: Marcelina Bautista - Making the invisible visible
— by IDWFED — last modified Nov 13, 2015 09:35 PMWhen Marcelina Bautista Bautista left her indigenous Mixtec community in Nochtixtlan, in the Mexican state of Oaxaca, at the age of 14 with only a primary school education and no knowledge of Spanish, she didn’t dream that one day she would end up contributing to the development of an international treaty for domestic workers’ rights. Driven by her experience which she shares with many other women, Marcelina made the invisible visible by revealing the conditions of millions of domestic workers who do not have a contract, fixed working hours, benefits or social security.
Ireland: The Help in Irish-style
— by IDWFED — last modified Aug 12, 2015 05:17 PMMany cleaners, au pairs and carers live in the shadows of Irish life: hired by word of mouth, engaged without contracts, paid below minimum wage. How do this vulnerable group see their adopted country? When you’re watching Downton Abbey it’s nice to think that the master-servant relationships it depicts are in the past. But there has been a boom in domestic service in recent years and care across the western world. London, for example, has as many domestic workers now as it did in Victorian times. This work, involving the care of old, sick and young people, is often done by immigrant workers, some undocumented.
USA: An Employer Speaks About Why She Cares About the Domestic Workers Bill of Rights
— by IDWFED — last modified Aug 26, 2015 05:09 PMThree months after my second child was born, I began preparing to go back to work three days a week. When I couldn’t find a nearby day care center that had a part-time program, I decided to look for a nanny. As I started to interview people, I had several questions. Do I trust this person to care for my child? What can we afford to pay? Does the schedule work for both of us? I also started to ask myself difficult questions about myself. How can I be a good employer? How do I balance my obligations to my employee with my obligations to my family? And, is it possible for me to be a responsible employer even if I can’t afford to pay the salary I know my employee deserves?
India: Domestic workers in Madurai doing a thankless job
— by IDWFED — last modified Aug 29, 2015 04:03 PMDomestic workers slog it out in households every day in return for little respect. Despite performing an essential service in households, the domestic help is treated with very little respect. Fifty nine-year-old M. Prema has served as a domestic help for three decades in Madurai. From a person who was even shy to tell others her profession, Mrs. Prema has transformed into the leader of the Domestic Helpers Union here. According to Mrs. Prema, domestic workers have no fixed wages, fixed working hours or weekly offs and have very little time to spend with their families. They are the prime suspects when valuables go missing from the houses of their employers. They are subjected to sexual harassment at work and are discriminated against by caste. Their hard work is seldom recognised, she says.
Indonesia: A Teen Domestic Worker talks about her life and work
— by IDWFED — last modified Aug 29, 2015 05:27 PMSantika Rantika, a teenage household helper, works almost 15 hours a day to earn a living. Despite her young age, she is also able to support her parents. An early riser, she starts her work at 6 a.m. and finishes at 10 p.m. each day. Her job description includes washing clothes, cleaning the whole house and her least favorite task: cooking. Santika told My Jakarta that the role of a household helper is to provide excellent service to a busy family. While Santika enjoys and is grateful for the employment it provides, she admits she would have been better off finishing her high school studies. It is for this reason Santika urges the government to invest more in the nation’s higher education system.
Netherlands: Work and life of undocumented domestic workers
— by IDWFED — last modified Aug 30, 2015 06:11 PMIn many Dutch households someone else cleans, cooks and takes care of the young and old family members. Many of these persons have no residence or working permits. Watch the following video to listen to what Daniela, Wani, Hugo and Edgar talk about their work and life in the Netherlands, as well as their worries and hopes.
USA: THE CARETAKER - A tender relationship between a caregiver and an elderly woman
— by IDWFED — last modified Aug 31, 2015 02:28 PMhis Op-Doc video explores the relationship between an immigrant caretaker and an elderly woman in the last months of her life. Joesy, a Fijian immigrant, works long hours providing live-in care for 95-year-old Haru Tsurumoto in Sonoma County, Calif. Through intimate and quiet scenes, we explore Joesy’s complex relationship with Haru. The two respect each other in part because each has experienced being an outsider in the United States — Joesy as an undocumented immigrant who fears she could be sent back to Fiji, and Haru as a Japanese-American who was sent to an internment camp during the Second World War.
South Africa: Story report on the Launch of the Africa Domestic Workers' Network
— by IDWFED — last modified Aug 31, 2015 04:04 PMOn 16 June 2013 the Africa Domestic Workers’ Network (AfDWN) was launched in Cape Town, South Africa, exactly two years after the adoption of the Domestic Workers’ Convention (C189) and at the very time when a diplomatic bag containing South African Government documents ratifying C189 was en route to Geneva for official lodging at the ILO. The launch Conference of the Africa Domestic Workers’ Network took place on 15-16 June 2013. The South African Domestic Service and Allied Workers’ Union (SADSAWU), with the support of the Congress of South Africa Trade Unions (COSATU) hosted the Conference. 95 domestic worker representatives from 17 organizations in 17 countries, with a total membership of 95572, participated in the Conference, and were joined by Steering Committee members and coordinators of the IDWN from Asia, Caribbean, USA and Latin America, as well as supportive organizations from South Africa and from Europe.
USA: Manhattan Organizers Work To Empower Filipino Domestic Workers
— by IDWFED — last modified Sep 08, 2015 04:15 PMHelping trafficked Filipino domestic workers is a crucial part of the mission of Damayan. "Our role is to organize and mobilize Filipino domestic workers, many of whom have been forced into modern-day slavery or have been trafficked into the United States," says Leah Obias, Damayan's campaigns coordinator and case manager.
Hong Kong: Dreamseekers - A story on Indonesian domestic workers
— by IDWFED — last modified Feb 22, 2016 10:59 PMListen to the stories of Indonesian domestic workers in HK - their dreams, their struggles and the prices they have to pay.