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Representatives from various domestic workers’ unions of Latin
America gathered in the Mexican capital to participate in a seminar
organized by their Confederation, and called on the governments of
the region to ratify international conventions and pass local laws
recognizing their labor rights. They denounced that in many of their
countries they suffer very unfavorable conditions, working
excessively long hours, and often for wages below the national
minimum.
On Sept. 25, the Latin American and Caribbean Confederation of
Domestic Workers (CONLACTRAHO) concluded its
International Seminar on Institutional Processes and Decent Work
for Domestic Workers, in the framework of an initiative of the
International Labor Organization (ILO). Some 14
representatives from Brazil, Mexico, Paraguay, Colombia,
Ecuador, Costa Rica, Chile, Argentina, Guatemala, Peru and
Bolivia attended the seminar to share their experiences in
organization.
The objectives of the event included building organizational and
operational capacities in order to carry out the Confederation’s
tasks more effectively, providing advice for institutional
processes with the aim of achieving better results and
generating a greater impact with their actions, further
strengthening institutional capacities, and launching a plan of
action with a view to the ILO’s International Labor
Conference in 2010.
At a press conference, the representatives of the various Latin
American organizations described the labor situation in their
countries and voiced their most pressing demands.
The diagnosis
Alcira Burgos,
who heads the Confederation’s Human Rights committee, reported
that there are about 1.2 million domestic workers in
Argentina. “After all the band-aid solutions that the
government has applied - because that’s what they are, merely
patches, not regulations in line with the human rights
conventions the country claims to uphold - only 20 percent of
domestics are working under legal conditions,” she said.
“We have no maternity benefits or medical coverage in the event
of work accidents or illnesses. What’s more, our human rights
are been violated because many of us are beaten,” Burgos
went on to say that.
For her part, the representative of the National Federation of
Paid Domestic Workers of Bolivia (FENATRAHOB),
Marina Salgado, reported that there are at least 150
thousand domestic workers employed in her country. “Sadly I have
to say that many of us have our rights violated. Our work is
dignified and decent, but in many countries people don’t realize
how important we are in the home, because if our employers had
no domestic workers at home, they would not be able to perform
their work and professional services,” she said.
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Domestic
workers appealed to civil society to recognize the importance of their work, and
called on their people to think about what would happen if they ever decided to
stage a work stoppage - the entire country would be paralyzed. |
Salgado
stressed the key social role played by these women who perform
domestic tasks and are often seen as inferiors members of society:
“We’re like second mothers to our employers’ children, we help them
with their studies and provide psychological support to all young
members of the family, because teenagers often feel more comfortable
telling us things they should be sharing with their parents. As
domestic workers we are a vital sector of society, and therefore we
should be taken into account by our countries’ governments,” she
underlined.
Ruth Moreno,
of the Union of Household Workers (SINTRACAP) of Chile,
admitted that “Chile has a fair amount of legislation, but
not all laws are complied. We have holidays off, and we’re fighting
to have shorter workdays, because we work 16-hour days, sometimes
even longer. Ours is such an important task, both what we do in our
own homes and in the homes we work for. So important that if our
sector decided to stage a work stoppage, the entire country would be
paralyzed. That’s how vital we are,” she said.
Marcelina Bautista,
general secretary of Mexico’s CONLACTRAHO, summarized
the state of labor rights for domestic workers in her country: “The
Federal Labor Act has a whole section, chapter 13, that deals
specifically with domestic workers, but it contains ambiguous
provisions and neither workers nor employers are familiar with it.
It needs to be amended; however, for the past four legislations
nothing has been done in this sense.”
Moreover, she said that you can’t really speak of dignified work
in the case of Mexico’s approximately two million
domestic workers. “Work hours are not regulated, neither are
wages or such benefits as social security, and on top of that
they often suffer a great deal of discrimination and violence,”
she said.
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“If it wasn’t for us - they said - many professionals would not be able to
perform their activities in the private or government sector. There’s much
discrimination, and sexual and economic abuse is widespread.” |
However, she said several advances had been made in the 14 countries
of the Confederation: “Some of these countries have passed certain
laws, for example, Peru and Bolivia in 2003, and more
recently Costa Rica. These laws have incorporated certain
gains with respect to rights such as social security benefits and
work hours.”
Again, one of the main objectives of the event was to draft a
statement to present to the ILO. “What we’re asking is that
governments recognize our rights, and that trade union federations
support us, because domestic workers are going to participate in
2010 (at the ILO conference) through these labor
organizations.”
Paulina Luza,
a
Peruvian representative who is a member of the Confederation’s
Minutes and Records committee, complained that “historically,
domestic workers in Latin America have had little support
from labor federations.” She recommended that domestic workers
continue to fight for autonomy in decision-making, so as not to lose
their identity, and she criticized the labor ministries that refuse
to register domestic workers’ unions, as has happened in many
countries.
Lenny Quirós,
from Ecuador’s Association of Paid Domestic Workers of
Guayaquil (ATRH), informed that they have been working for
eleven years to organize the sector’s workers, highlighting that in
the past two years the current government has achieved more than
what they were able to achieve in the previous nine years. “Our
president, Rafael Correa, opened up an opportunity for us,
and through the work of legislators and congress our rights have now
been included in the Constitution.
Just because our work is done inside the home doesn’t mean we’re
worth less than professionals. We can fight and attain whatever we
set out to achieve. We’ve made it this far, and that in itself shows
the strength we’ve gained.”
Amalia Romero,
of the Union of Domestic Workers of Paraguay (SINTRADOP),
denounced that in her country they are “discriminated by law;
domestic workers suffers social, cultural and economic
discrimination. In Paraguay, domestics are paid only 40
percent of the minimum wage established by law.”
Antonia López,
of the Group of Domestic Workers of Upper Chiapas (CEDACH),
informed that a literacy campaign is underway to teach domestic
workers of that region of Mexico to read and write and learn
about their labor rights.
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