Women migrant workers

Regional Planning Meeting for Promoting ASEAN Women Migrant Workers’ Rights through Organizing

The report centres women migrant workers' freedom of association and collective bargaining, identifies the challenges to their organizing, and puts forward recommendations to strengthen women migrant workers' leadership and participation in labour organizations.

One of the most effective ways of preventing the exploitation of women migrant workers is to guarantee their right to organize, collectively bargain, and to join trade unions in destination countries. However, women migrant workers face a variety of barriers to organizing, such as legal restrictions, long working hours, lack of days off, and isolated workplaces.

To learn from good practices of women migrant workers protecting their rights and to build solidarity among different stakeholders, a regional planning meeting for promoting ASEAN women migrant workers’ rights through organizing was held in 2018. The Safe and Fair programme delivers technical assistance and support with the overall objective of making labour migration safe and fair for all women in the ASEAN region. During the two-day-discussion, the meeting identified the key challenges that prevent women’s access to organizing, put forward good practices, showcased strategies to increase membership of women migrant workers, and strengthened the capacity of unions to engage with migrant women.