On April 25, the Uruguayan Parliament ratified ILO Convention 189 concerning decent work for domestic workers. SIREL spoke with socialist senator Mónica Xavier, who participated throughout the ratification process, to gather her opinion on this achievement.

-As a legislator and a woman, what do you think of the ratification of Convention 189?

-As a Uruguayan woman, I feel immensely proud that Uruguay is the first country to ratify Convention 189 concerning decent work for domestic workers, especially, in a country such as ours, where the vast majority of domestics are women.

Another reason to feel proud is that this ILO Convention drew heavily, among other sources, on a law regulating domestic work that was passed by the Uruguayan Parliament during its previous legislature (Law No. 18,065). This law enabled tens of thousands of domestic workers in our country to regularize their employment situation and to have social security coverage.

Although we still haven’t reached the goal of having all domestic workers registered in the system, we’re well over 50 percent, and this, in practice, is huge progress considering how working conditions were for this sector before the law was passed.

The original aim was to have the Convention ratified before May 1^st, because of the significance of that date, and we did it, as it was ratified on April 25 with the unanimous vote of the legislators who attended the session.

I think the speed with which this instrument was ratified is due to the fact that the Senate had been studying it for a long time, and all that was necessary was the Parliament’s sanction. The possibility of ratifying the convention before May 1^st had already been discussed in a tripartite instance that involved the Sole Union of Domestic Workers (STUD), and we succeeded. After it went through both chambers, the Executive Branch signed it into law, making it the second law that regulates work in the sector in Uruguay.

Therefore, my assessment of this whole process is very positive. As a woman who works outside her home, I know how important it is to have the support of these workers who make our household tasks easier for us; so there is nothing more just than this law that fully recognizes their rights.

-How will this Convention affect workers in practice?

-At the national level, when you have legislation like this there is always a greater chance of bridging the gap between law and reality.

In this case, in particular, throughout the ratification process, in addition to having the participation of employers and the government, we engaged the stakeholders whose rights are most vulnerable: women workers. In this way, working from various spheres we will be able to further the implementation of public policies connected with this sector.

The government carried out an awareness-raising campaign to encourage employers to register their domestic workers in the social security system, and this was the result of coordinated efforts between the Executive Branch and women legislators, who succeeded in securing the necessary political will to make this law possible.

It is a just instrument that furthers equity in a long-neglected sector; at the same time it is a model of parliamentary work in which legislators work together with the beneficiaries themselves, and a good example of how an Executive with political will can achieve its goals.

It should be highlighted that after Law No. 18,065 was passed inspections were conducted in numerous homes that employed domestic workers, with the aim of verifying whether the law was being effectively implemented.

According to recent data from the ILO, 13 out of 100 women who are employed in Uruguay’s job market work as domestics (2010). This amounts to approximately 88,000 women, or 5.6 percent of all workers in the country. Many of these women workers and their families live under the poverty line, with an estimated 25 percent in that situation. That is often due to the fact that women domestics earn in average 27.5 percent less per hour than other workers.

Uruguay currently has one of the most advanced domestic worker laws in the region. Law No. 18,065, which was passed in November 2006, grants domestic workers the same legal protections as any other worker and guarantees their right to participate in collective bargaining.