Myrtle Witbooi, IDWN Chair and
Marcelina Bautista, IDWN Latin American Regional Coordinator

I have worked for 12 years as a domestic worker and have dedicated 28 years of my life to campaigning for the rights of domestic workers. I am currently the General Secretary of the South African Domestic Service and Allied Workers Union, which is part of the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU). I am also very honoured to be the Chair of the International Domestic Workers Network, which speaks out for millions of domestic workers around the world. It is on behalf of these workers that I want to thank the ILO for the opportunity to participate in this Conference. Allowing this participation has made visible the work of millions of domestic workers. So please forgive us if, at times, we allow ourselves to get carried away by the excitement of this historic moment when the voices of domestic workers are heard for the first time at the international level.

With the help of many supporters, friends and allies, we have managed to bring domestic workers to the ILO, and I am sure you will feel the spirit and see the hope and expression on our faces. We wanted to show you the importance of domestic workers, who contribute to building the economies of the world by looking after your families and your homes. We are sure that, for the first time, the delegates at this Conference could feel, hear and experience the unity among the domestic workers, and maybe we will convince you that united, we can move mountains.

We have been waiting 63 years for this to happen, and we cannot lose this opportunity to appeal to you all to please secure the minimum labour standards for the millions of domestic workers who are still unprotected in their respective countries.

As you know, my country has gone through changes since the election of our new democratic Government 15 years ago. From 1997 to 2003, doors have been opened for domestic workers to speak out about their circumstances. As a result of our campaigning and work with our supportive Ministry of Labour, a democratic Government, and several employers' organizations, domestic workers have been able to enjoy the labour laws of our country. We are fortunate to have strong domestic workers' leaders and trade union federations, who together made it possible for domestic workers to be included in four key labour laws. In fact, most of the proposed conclusions discussed in this Conference, some of which have caused intense debate these last two weeks, have already been implemented in my country. Employers and domestic workers have benefited from having a contract of employment which has enabled both parties to negotiate fair working conditions. So, if South Africa can achieve it, I am sure the world can do it as well. And our appeal to our Government is to assist us in convincing other governments that to grant domestic workers a Convention with strong recommendations will only lead to better working conditions for all.

We hope that we can bring this experience to the ILO, in order to create an international instrument that will not only protect domestic workers, but will also give us back our dignity and allow us to walk tall, just as any other workers in the world!

We thank you and we will see you all in June 2011, with the hope that will continue to burn in our hearts, and we will walk away from the ILO with a Convention with strong recommendations. We wish you all a safe journey home.

Marcelina Bautista

I have been a domestic worker for more than 22 years. I am part of the tripartite delegation of Mexico and am speaking on behalf of the domestic workers of Latin America and the Caribbean. We support and fully endorse what was said by the spokesperson for our group in the Committee on Domestic Workers. Bearing in mind that the right to decent work is a human right, for both men and women, and considering that human dignity is non-negotiable, we as domestic workers firmly believe that decent work is an inalienable and non-transferable right which should reflect the dignity of the individual and is fundamental in terms of making progress towards a democratic society.

However, there are more than 100 million domestic workers in the world, including child labourers, and our basic rights are neither recognized nor respected. We are often invisible from a social point of view and are excluded from public policies. Thus, in the vast majority of cases, our work is neither valued nor considered as an occupation that brings added value to the development of our countries. It continues to be accepted that we can work without an employment contract or a schedule, with an excessive workload, without sufficient pay, and sometimes with no pay at all.

Another fundamental aspect is that we are not included in the social security systems enjoyed by other workers. Moreover, violence in the workplace is a daily occurrence and can take the form of psychological and physical mistreatment and sexual abuse. In this context, discrimination against us because we are women and because we are women workers employed in the home makes us even more vulnerable to exploitation. We are isolated and it is difficult for us to organize collectively to defend our human and labour rights.

Legislative protection is minimal or non-existent in many countries, which makes it impossible for us to gain access to labour justice. We must add that, generally, we have no rights to organize in a trade union. It is very important now to turn this relationship of exploitation into an ethical labour relationship based on rights and to recognize the value of the work that we are doing as domestic workers.

Therefore, we consider that a Convention supplemented by a Recommendation provides a framework for social dialogue where the political actors give us recognition and guarantee that we enjoy our full rights as citizens and workers, so that in each country legislation can be adapted and so that we, as workers, can enjoy our rights.

This is possible if there is political will, as is the case in those countries that have made progress with legislation recognizing the rights of domestic workers, such as Uruguay, El Salvador, the Plurinational State of Bolivia, Costa Rica and Brazil. We believe that our human right to work, as laid out in the four pillars of decent work promoted by the ILO, includes non-discrimination and equal opportunity, meaning a decent wage, decent conditions regarding occupational safety and health, stable employment, non violence and access to social security, so that we have somewhere to live, health care and a decent retirement. It also includes the recognition of freedom of association and the right to organize, guaranteeing the full enjoyment of our labour rights, and social dialogue as a tool to enable us to reach the necessary agreements within a framework of respect and tolerance, as has been seen in this Conference, which has enabled us to adopt a draft text which we will continue working on for the second discussion.

These examples show that change is possible and it is what gives us hope that a Convention and a Recommendation on the rights of domestic workers could make a difference and improve the living and working conditions of millions of women working as domestic workers.