Moving towards decent work for domestic workers: An overview of the ILO's work

This paper focuses on the situation of female domestic workers employed for cleaning, cooking and care-giving.

The first section of this paper highlights the contribution of domestic workers to the care economy. The second draws on recent studies conducted by the ILO and various international human rights organizations to present the problems that domestic workers are confronted with. The response of the ILO and its constituents to the problem, normative, academic and practical, is then described. The following section presents the demands of domestic worker organizations and gives examples of policies and programmes at national level that promote their rights. Possible ways forward towards making decent work a reality for domestic workers are then explored.