Research Network for Domestic Worker Rights
Newsletter No. 10
Dear colleagues,
You are reading the tenth newsletter
of the Research Network for Domestic
Worker Rights, including information on
the implementation process of the ILO
Convention, campaigns, and news from
the world of research. Contributions for
the next newsletter are welcome.
1. Launch of the
IDWF in Montevideo
Domestic Workers Launch an Inter-
national Federation (IDWF) in Monte-
viedo, Uruguay
by Karin Pape
After two years of intense discussions
within the International Domestic Work-
ers Network (IDWN), the transformation
from a loose network into a worldwide
federation was decided at the Founding
Congress of the International Domestic
Workers Federation (IDWF), which took
place 26-28 October in Montevideo,
Dec 2013
IDWF Founding Congress
Montevideo October 2013
Uruguay.
Content
For the first time, delegates from about
48 domestic workers organizations 1. Launch of the IDWF
from 42 countries decided on a con- in Montevideo
stitution, elected office bearers for the
2. Publications
Executive Committee (EC) and adopted
a five-year action plan. 3. Updates on the Con-
vention and Campaign
The regional delegates for the EC had News
been nominated in regional workshops
and were confirmed by the Congress.
The Newsletter includes contri-
Among the EC members, the Congress butions from Grace Baey Hui-Yi,
voted unanimously as President Myrtle Katerina Dederov, Dan Gallin
Witbooi from SADSAWU South Africa. Marieke Koning, Sabrina Marchet-
ti, Dina Nuriyati, Karin Pape,
For the Vice-President there were two Helen Schwenken, Marizen Santos,
nominations , Ernestina Ochoa from Nisha Varia, Stefanie Visel
IPROFOTH, Peru and Juanita Flores from
the NDWA in the USA. In a secret ballot
Ernestina got 46 votes and Juanita 34,
therefore Ernestina Ochoa was elected
Vice-President of IDWF. As General
Secretary, the former international coor-
dinator of IDWN, Elizabeth Tang from
Hong Kong, was elected unanimously
by Congress.
1
Research Network for Domestic Worker Rights
Montevideo, Uruguay was chosen
because it was the first country which
ratified the ILO Convention Decent
Work for Domestic Workers (C 189) and
the first country in Latin America where
a collective agreement for domestic
workers was concluded. Moreover the
government of Uruguay undertook
tremendous efforts to successfully in-
clude domestic workers into the social
welfare system.
The Congress felt very honored that the
President of the country, Jos Mujica
addressed the Congress and expressed
that he is very proud that his country is
hosting this Founding Congress of the
International Domestic Workers Federa-
tion.
This was no ordinary international un-
ion congress. For many of the domestic
workers present this was the first time
that they had attended such an event
organized by them, for them. For
some it was the first time that they had
Voting at the Launch of the IDWF, Oct
2013, Montevideo
travelled to another country.
Throughout the last years, domestic
workers have experienced a lot of sup-
port around the globe. In particular the
Global Union Federation IUF , the global
action-policy-research network WIEGO
and the Global Labour Insitute (GLI )
were the ones that gave unconditional
and tireless support from the very
beginning. It is worth mentioning that
the IUF gave IDWN/IDWF a home by
providing administrative and political
support by its staff and its decision-
making structures without imposing
any requirements in return for the sup-
port and thus making it an innovative
and flexible structural arrangement. In
its five-year action plan, IDWF decided
to apply for affiliation to IUF as a spe-
cial group.
In a moving speech on 28 October, Dan
Gallin, chair of GLI and former General
Secretary of IUF, encouraged the del-
egates with these words:
You have openend your own road, by
walking. () One thing, though, is clear:
your future is with the labour move-
ment. You will contribute to shape it,
perhaps more than you now realize.
You have created the first international
trade union federation in history that
will be run entirely by women. () You
have also created a federation of work-
ers who until recently were not even
perceived as workers. You have dem-
onstrated that ther is no such things a
unorganizable workers.
IDWN on the Federation:
http://www.idwn.info/news/idwn-con-
gress-our-new-federation-born
IUF Declaration on the IDWF
http://cms.iuf.org/?q=node/2921
2. Publications
Ally, Shireen (2013). Ooh, eh
eh Just One Small Cap is Enough!
Servants, Detergents, and their Pros-
thetic Significance . African Studies 72
2
Research Network for Domestic Worker Rights
(3).
Becker, Jo (2013). Campaigning for
Justice: Human Rights Advocacy in
Practice. Stanford: Stanford University
Press
Bludau, H. & Ezzedine, P. (2013).
Seeing Gender in Migration. The-
matic issue. Urban People/Lide Mesta,
15 (2). http://lidemesta.cz/index.
php?id=28&issue=908.
Dean, Amy B. (2013, Oct 9). How
Domestic Workers Won Their Rights: 5
big lessons. Yes! http://www.yesmaga-
zine.org/people-power/how-domestic-
workers-won-their-rights-five-big-
lessons
Farbenblum, B., Taylor-Nicholson, E.
& Paoletti, S. (2013). Migrant Workers
Access to Justice at Home: Indonesia.
Open Society Foundation. http://www.
migrantworkerjustice.org/
Heimeshoff, L. & Schwenken, H.
(2013). Das bisschen Haushalt ... sagt
mein Mann - Die politische Reguli-
erung von Haushaltsarbeit und Implika-
tionen fr die geschlechtliche Arbeit-
steilung. In: Arbeit (3).
Human Rights Watch, IDWN &ITUC
(2013). Claiming Rights. http://www.
hrw.org/reports/2013/10/27/claiming-
rights
This 33-page report, released by
IDWN, the ITUC, and Human Rights
Watch, charts ratification of the Inter-
national Labour Organization (ILO)
Domestic Workers Convention, national
labor law reforms, and the growing in-
fluence of emerging domestic workers
rights movements
Khoilar, Sanaz & Lux, Anna-Lena/
Lddecke, Tobias (2013). Menschnewr-
dige Arbeit fr Hausangestellte - Ta-
gungsbericht zu den Chancen des ILO-
bereinkommens fr Hausangestellte.
In: Sozial Extra 9/10 2103, S. 10-12.
Mather, Celia (2113). Yes, We Did It!
How the Worlds Domestic Workers Won
Their International Rights and Recog-
nition. http://wiego.org/resources/
yes-we-did-it-how-worlds-domestic-
workers-won-their-international-rights-
and-recognition
Migrant Forum Asia (2013). Policy
Briefs: Right to Health and Social Protec-
tion. http://www.mfasia.org/resources/
publications/464-mfa-policy-briefs
Platt, M.; Brenda S.A. Yeoh, Grace
Baey, Khoo Choon Yen, Theodora
Lam, Dhiman Das & Miriam Ee (2013).
Financing Migration, Generating Remit-
tances and the Building of Livelihood
Strategies: A Case Study of Indonesian
Migrant Women as Domestic Workers in
Singapore. http://migratingoutofpover-
ty.dfid.gov.uk/documents/wp10-platt-
et-al-final.pdf
This project draws on quantita-
tive and qualitative methodologies
to highlight the perspectives of Indo-
nesian domestic workers embarking
on migration as a livelihood strategy
for poverty alleviation. It investigates
the significance of money at different
points of the migration process - that
is, how families finance the migration
of a wife, mother, or daughter; what
and how migration brokers charge to
facilitate the move; and what amounts
of remittances are generated over the
course of the labour contract. In addi-
tion, it examines the mediating role of
communications technologies in reduc-
ing the transaction costs of migration
and remittance-sending.
Scheiwe, Kirsten & Schwach, Verena
(2013). Das Arbeitszeitrecht fr Hau-
sangestellte nach Ratifizierung der
ILO-Konvention 189. In: Neue Zeitschrift
fr Arbeitsrecht (NZA) 20/2013, pp.
1116-1120.
Varia, Nisha (2013). Labor Rights for
All: The Fight Against Modern-Day Slav-
ery. Human Rights Watch. http://www.
hrw.org/news/2013/11/06/labor-rights-
all-fight-against-modern-day-slavery
Visel, Stefanie (2013). Who cares?
The ILO convention Decent Work for
Domestic Workers in: Transnational
Social Review. A Social Work Journal Vol.
3 /2, pp. 229-243.
3. updates on the
Convention and Cam-
paign news
Ten countries registered at ILO: Bo-
livia, Germany, Italy, Guyana, Mauricio,
Nicaragua, Paraguay, Philippines, South
Africa and Uruguay
Five countries finalized ratification
process at national level - now in a pro-
cess to register at the ILO: Colombia,
Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Costa
Rica, Argentina
Czech Republic
Fake agency created to provoke and
draw the attention to domestic work
issues
by Kateina Dederov
3
Research Network for Domestic Worker Rights

As part of the campaign the Asso-
ciation for Integration and Migration
(SIMI), People in Need Foundation and
the creative agency Ogilvy & Mather
and Mather Advertures created a fake
agency called Foreign Housekeepers,
which was offering services of female
migrant domestic workers under alarm-
ing working conditions. Women offered
as commodities, available 24/7, doing
work beyond employment contract or
with no contract, lack of privacy for in-
home service, or no overtime pay and
with typical features - loyal, discreet,
trustworthy, or silent. The agency itself
was promoted in the media by Kateina
Kristelov, Czech celebrity, who at an
opening event revealed the truth about
the agency, being created for the pur-
pose to alert and to draw the attention
to the domestic work issue.
Even though this agency was not real,
the sad truth about domestic work
is that there are many in the Czech
Republic who might still offer direct
employment of nannies, nurses, house-
keepers and maids under such condi- Child Labor in Domestic Work
tions, even if they do not admit that Human Rights Watch put out a number
openly. of materials for the World Day against
Child Labor. The two documents found
The overall aim of the campaign is to on the website providing updates on
show that domestic work is a real job, the convention, as well as on child
thus it is subject to the Labour Code. domestic labor in particular.
Organizers wanted to make an appeal There is also a map that shows progress
to the families employing the domestic on laws protecting domestic workers
workers to be fair to their employees. around the world.
For this purpose, organizers wrote the http://web1.hrw.org/content/world-
so called Ten Commandments of a Fair day-against-child-labor-act-now-end-
Employer and also offer free counselling child-labor-domestic-work
to female migrants and their employers
at SIMI. All the necessary information
about domestic work, campaign and
useful contacts can be found at www.
pracovnicevdomacnosti.cz
California, USA
The state of California passed a bill,
granting overtime pay to domestic
workers. Domestic workers who work
more than 9 hours per day or 45 hours
per week will receive overtime pay.

Contacts: Research Network for Domestic Worker Rights

Contact to the interim coordinators: Claire Hobden (ILOACTRAV), Rebeca Pabon (FNV Bondgenoten, The Neth-
erlands), Prof. Dr. Helen Schwenken (ICDD/University of Kassel), and LisaMarie Heimeshoff (ICDD/University of
Kassel): dwrn@icdd.unikassel.de

Europe: Dr. Sabrina Marchetti, European University Institute, Florence, sabrinamarchetti@rocketmail.com

Latin America: Prof Dr Mary Rosaria Goldsmith Connelly, Universidad Autnoma MetropolitanaXochimilco, Mexi-
co: gcmr7503@correo.xoc.uam.mx

North America: Prof Jennifer N. Fish PhD, Old Dominion University, United States: jfish@odu.edu

Editor of the Newsletter: Lisa-Marie Heimeshoff, dw-rn@icdd.uni-kassel.de