ABSTRACT
To the surprise of many observers, in March 2008, the governing body of the International Labour Organization (ILO) adopted a resolution requiring it to prepare to negotiate a new international treaty on decent work for domestic workers. The ILO ultimately defined domestic work in the resulting Decent Work Convention, 2011 broadly as ‘work performed in or for a household or households’. In contrast, it limited ‘domestic workers’ to those undertaking domestic work in ‘an employment relationship’. Domestic workers receive substandard pay, which is often below minimum wage and for long, often indefinitely long, hours. This is the case whether the households are wealthy or of moderate income. At the ILO, domestic workers embraced the preparatory work that articulated their claim to the human right to be included as workers. A big part of the standard setting on decent work for domestic workers was working against invisibility and the unjust law of the household workplace.
