Protection of Women Workers from Labour Rights Abuses, Violence and Harassment: Experiences of Migrant Domestic Workers and International Standards Setting (ILO C189 & C190)

“Actually, many of them (migrant domestic workers) get treatments like modern slavery. In their employer’s house, no one knows what happens inside, which is very risky. Sometimes, the new ones (workers) from Indonesia cannot understand Cantonese or English. So, if the employer asks her something but she cannot understand, sometimes the employer gets very angry and suddenly does violence,” said Rosidah Romlah, Chairperson of Asosiasi Tenaga Kerja Indonesia (ATKI) in our conversation for VOICESEA Podcast.

Experiences like what Rosidah described are very common among women domestic migrant workers. She also told us that many of her fellow domestic workers faced long working hours, which could be 16 to 24 hours per day. They are often given little time to rest, nor enough time to sleep, while living in inadequate accommodations where they have to sleep in a kitchen, bathroom or storage space. They often lack access to proper meals, and may be given very little food that is not nutritious, or leftover from their employers. 

According to the International Labour Organization (ILO), in 2021, there are approximately 38.3 million domestic workers in Asia and the Pacific, and a significant number of them are migrants and women.  In Southeast Asia, Indonesia, the Philippines and Myanmar have typically had large outflows of women migrants engaged in domestic work.

Clarice Canonizado, Education and Research Coordinator of Asia Pacific Mission for Migrants (APMM), in the podcast conversation, highlighted two key international conventions that are key to protecting the rights of women migrant domestic workers. 

ILO Convention concerning Decent Work for Domestic Workers (Domestic Workers Convention) or ILO C189 was adopted in June 2011. It sets out labour standards for domestic workers and protection of their rights. ILO Convention concerning the elimination of violence and harassment in the world of work (Violence and Harassment Convention) or ILO C190 was adopted in June 2019. It specifically addresses the rights of all workers to be protected from violence and harassment, including gender-based violence, in their workplaces. 

Clarice explained that the ratification of these two conventions is very crucial in setting the baseline for protecting not only women domestic migrant workers but all migrant women globally and in our region. However, the Philippines is the only country in Asia which has already ratified both conventions. While this may reflect a pattern, in which international conventions to protect the rights of migrant workers have more state parties that are the origin countries of migrant workers rather than destination countries, many of the origin countries in Asia, including Indonesia, also have not ratified either ILO C189 or C190. 

Countries need to stop seeing migrant workers as commodities and start seeing them as human beings and workers with labour rights. Clarice shared her observation on why both the origin and destination countries might not be willing to ratify the said conventions, saying that both the origin and destination countries benefit from the work of domestic workers and unfair treatment against them. She also pointed out that many employment agencies also benefit from cheap and temporary labour or migrant domestic workers. It is hoped that if both the origin and destination countries ratify ILO C189 and ILO C190  and apply them to their national laws that are followed up by effective implementations in which all stakeholders are held accountable, the situations of migrant domestic workers like Rosidah and her fellow workers could be improved. 

“The ratification is really urgent because the level of abuses, the level of harassment, is not slowing down either.  It’s the UN’s responsibility, it’s the ILO’s responsibility, it’s the governments’ responsibility to make sure, again and again, (that) they protect their own citizens, they protect foreigners who are in destination countries.” – Clarice Canonizado