Often employed without clear terms of employment, unregistered and excluded from the scope of labour legislation, deplorable working conditions, labour exploitation and human rights abuses these are some major problems facing domestic workers. To help address this anomaly South Africa’s Labour Minister Mildred Oliphant will this weekend host the first domestic workers’ Public Participation Programme.
Oliphant said in Geneva this week ahead of the Public Participation Programme that it was critical for the domestic workers, working in a sector often “invisible” behind the doors of private households and unprotected from abuse - to organise themselves so that they will have a bigger and much more significant voice and they could fight for their rights as a collective.
“We have heard the cries of our mothers and fathers, sisters and brothers. We realise that domestic workers are particularly vulnerable to all sort of abuses. During the summit, we want to use the opportunity to engage them on their rights in terms of the Basic Conditions of Employment, Labour Relations as well as the Unemployment Insurance Act.
“In our engagements, this is an area that was identified as lacking and therefore we are responding to the need as identified by the workers themselves,” Oliphant said.
The Public Participation Programme will also be used to help workers on matters regarding claims for the unemployment insurance fund, compensation fund and worker registration on the department’s Employment Services for South Africa (Essa) among others.
The domestic workers Public Participation Programme will be held on 2 November 2013 at the Mandela Park Stadium in Khayelitsha, Western Cape. It will start at 10h00. Oliphant plans to host similar gathering across the country in the near future.
The International Labour Organisation’s (ILO) domestic Workers Convention, 2011 (No. 189) came into force in September 2013, extending basic labour rights to domestic workers around the globe. The adoption of the Convention represents a key milestone on the path to the realisation of decent work for domestic workers.
