News / National
Zim Set To Host Domestic Workers Conference
07 Dec 2011 at 22:54hrs | Views
Zimbabwe will next year host a regional all stakeholders' conference to discuss social protection, safety and health of domestic workers in a move to uplift their conditions of service.
In an interview on the sidelines of the just ended consensus building workshop on the development of Sadc employment and labour policies and strategies held in Victoria Falls, director of international relations in the Ministry of Labour and Social Services Mr Poem Mudyawabikwa said the workshop would be held early next year.
"Zimbabwe will convene an all-stakeholder workshop to deliberate on how best the region (Sadc) can come up with harmonised policies on uplifting the working conditions of domestic workers in line with the International Labour Organisation Convention on Decent Work for Domestic Workers," Mr Mudyawabikwa said.
He said most countries in the region and the world over do not have social protection for domestic workers.
Domestic workers include child minders, gardeners and cooks, a vulnerable group that is abused and highly exploited.
There are an estimated 100 million domestic workers in more than 180 countries. Their pay is generally below the poverty datum level, and very few have fringe benefits such as pensions and employer-paid health care while few have the protection of unions or labour laws, and they are often at the mercy of unscrupulous labour contractors.
This prompted the ILO to adopt Convention 189 on Decent Work for Domestic Workers which calls for guaranteeing domestic workers everywhere of the key right to join unions, entitled to vacations, maternity leave and social security benefits.
The convention also requires working conditions for domestic workers to include time off of at least 24 hours a week.
The convention was adopted at the ILO 100th session in Geneva, Switzerland, in June this year.
In September this year, Zimbabwe set new wages and conditions of service for domestic workers.
This move by Government was in line with the call by the ILO for member states to effectively implement the historic convention, which seeks to improve the working conditions of millions of domestic workers worldwide.
In an interview on the sidelines of the just ended consensus building workshop on the development of Sadc employment and labour policies and strategies held in Victoria Falls, director of international relations in the Ministry of Labour and Social Services Mr Poem Mudyawabikwa said the workshop would be held early next year.
"Zimbabwe will convene an all-stakeholder workshop to deliberate on how best the region (Sadc) can come up with harmonised policies on uplifting the working conditions of domestic workers in line with the International Labour Organisation Convention on Decent Work for Domestic Workers," Mr Mudyawabikwa said.
He said most countries in the region and the world over do not have social protection for domestic workers.
Domestic workers include child minders, gardeners and cooks, a vulnerable group that is abused and highly exploited.
This prompted the ILO to adopt Convention 189 on Decent Work for Domestic Workers which calls for guaranteeing domestic workers everywhere of the key right to join unions, entitled to vacations, maternity leave and social security benefits.
The convention also requires working conditions for domestic workers to include time off of at least 24 hours a week.
The convention was adopted at the ILO 100th session in Geneva, Switzerland, in June this year.
In September this year, Zimbabwe set new wages and conditions of service for domestic workers.
This move by Government was in line with the call by the ILO for member states to effectively implement the historic convention, which seeks to improve the working conditions of millions of domestic workers worldwide.
Source - TH
