Our Work

UNITING FOR DOMESTIC WORKERS’ RIGHTS!

Since the founding of the Federation in 2013, the IDWF has grown to represent domestic workers in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean, North America, Europe, and the Middle East. Member organizations have received services and support from training in basic administration and capacity building to support with organising and campaigns. The IDWF is committed to helping domestic workers build strong, democratic and accountable workers’ organizations, and to weave these organizations into an influential global federation to protect domestic/household workers’ rights everywhere. The IDWF works to achieve this end by:

Uniting domestic/household workers’ organizations nationally, regionally and globally;
Promoting women’s leadership within those affiliated organizations through training and advocacy;
Connecting workers’ organizations and domestic/household workers with the national and international labour movement;
Supporting affiliates to develop effective collective bargaining mechanisms in order to improve the working conditions of domestic/household workers;

Promoting gender equality, human and trade union rights in every country, making governments accountable to their people;
Strengthening the federation through solidarity with the labour movement and collaboration with trade unions and strategic allies; and
Challenging economic and social policies and current power relations that create wealth inequalities, erode worker and other human rights and create forced migration.

“For hundreds of years we have been excluded from rights. So I would like to thank all those who have helped us, especially the IUF. If we do not come together, it is impossible to achieve what we want. We all know about our problems. We all have a story to tell. But C189 is a tool to take the struggle forward. That is why we are all here. There is still reluctance among many governments. But Uruguay and the others which have already ratified the C189 show that they are concerned with the development of their country, not their own pockets.”

Adelina Diaz

from the FENTRAHOGARP (Federation of Household Workers of Peru), Peru

ORGANIZING

CAPACITY BUILDING

RESEARCH & CAMPAIGNS

ADVOCACY

ORGANIZING

Experience has proven that building collective strength through organizing allows domestic workers and their allies to have a presence at local, national and international policy-making forums. This, in turn, enables them to affect the drafting of legislation that improves their access to rights, their work and their lives. However, it is the very private nature of domestic work that makes organizing in this sector particularly challenging. Domestic workers are typically isolated and therefore hard to reach. Even when they are aware of support systems and workers organisations, they lack resources such as free time and money necessary to attend events.

Some of the main challenges identified to organizing domestic/household workers include:

Isolated and invisible nature of work in private homes
Fear of employers and losing jobs
Engaging in and promoting research regarding domestic work and domestic workers to strengthen advocacy, campaigns and other actions;
Dependency on employer for housing, food, immigration status, etc.
Not protected by labor laws
Long hours of work, no rest or free time, and no holidays
Fear of authorities (particularly for migrant workers)

The aim of the IDWF is to continue to tackle these challenges by building a strong, democratic and united domestic/household workers’ global organization in order to protect and advance domestic workers’ rights everywhere. The IDWF accomplishes this through connecting workers’ organisations into a global federation, by strengthening those workers organisations through supporting capacity building and collective bargaining, through advocacy and awareness campaigns, and by leveraging the support of strategic partners – including traditional trade union bodies and the international labour movement.

CAPACITY BUILDING

IDWF builds domestic/household workers capacity to lift up their needs and solutions at a global level. We have strategic alliances, relationships, and clout with trade unions, civil society organizations, and governments in national, regional, and international arenas. We join with other workers in informal employment, migrant workers, and women to build power to affect the cross cutting issues that affect all of us.

We are committed to supporting affiliates to be powerful, democratic, sustainable worker organizations. Affiliate member organizations should have the basic organizational capacity and resources necessary to organize domestic workers, facilitate and/or provide needed education and supports, and lead effective advocacy to improve domestic workers lives and working conditions.

To reach this goal, we develop collective learning that strengthen the capacity of organizations to think about their reality and to increase their strength & reach in areas such as leadership, communications, global campaigns, and creating strong networks of organisations in solidarity with one another.

Learn more about

Self-Paced Communications Courses

Self-Paced Digital Literacy Courses

Self-Paced Fundraising Courses

Decent work for Domestic Workers in Asia and Pacific – Manual for Trainers

Leadership, Unity, reNovation and Amplification (LUNA)

JHWU Manual for Household Workers and Employers in Jamaica

Train the Trainers Toolkit on the ILO Violence and Harassment Convention (No. 190) and Recommendation (No. 206)

RESEARCH & CAMPAIGNS

IDWF, together with its affiliates, have developed and implemented strategic multi-national and global level campaigns. We make sure to engage in and promote research regarding domestic work and domestic workers to improve strategy, advocacy and the impact of these campaigns. In doing so, we partner and support campaigns and advocacy relevant to improving the lives of domestic workers and addressing the broader factors that create inequality.

ADVOCACY

We facilitate the sharing of best practices among domestic/household workers and their organisations, including documentation and dissemination of advances in domestic/ household workers’ organising, campaign victories, collective bargaining models, legal and social protections and other activities of domestic workers’ organisations that contribute to improving the working and living conditions of workers.

The IDWF has undertaken to achieve the above-listed aims through:

Representing domestic/household workers at regional and international forums;
Organising and/or supporting campaigns to ratify ILO Conventions 189 & 190 and to implement its provisions;
Providing education and training activities and opportunities in order to strengthen the capacity of affiliates and their members, and supporting the formation of new organisations where none exist and where there is a need;
Facilitating the sharing of best practices among domestic/household workers and their organisations, including documentation and dissemination of advances in domestic/household workers’ organising, campaign victories, bargaining models, legal and social protections and other activities of domestic/household workers’ organisations that contribute to improving the working and living conditions of domestic/household workers;

Engaging in and promoting research regarding domestic work and domestic workers to strengthen advocacy, campaigns and other actions;
Supporting the strengthening of IDWF affiliates and their struggles and campaigns to improve access to human rights and trade union rights;
Communicating regularly with affiliates to facilitate their active participation in the life of the IDWF;
Engaging in strategic public awareness campaigns; and
Building, promoting, and maintaining alliances with trade unions and other strategic partners, and leveraging the resources created through those alliances to the benefit of domestic/household workers and their organisations.

“I have been a domestic worker for over 12 years, and now I am an active trade unionist. People used to say it is too difficult to organize domestic workers. This is not my experience. The IDWN preparations for the C189 were the starting point for my own activities. I could tell domestic workers that they also have rights but to gain them they have to come together in a union. We had organizing drives in many African countries, and this year we have established an African Domestic Workers Network, composed of 17 unions with 95,000 members. And more unions are being formed. In Africa, our organizations are developing rapidly through active participation of our members. That is why we do not agree that organizing domestic workers is something difficult.”