An article in The Economist discusses the adoption of the Convention Concerning Decent Work for Domestic Workers by the International Labour Organization on June 16. The Convention seeks to limit working hours, guarantee days off, ensure a minimum wage and protect domestic workers from violent employers. Basic rights.
A convention is an essential first step. But will this one move forward? Countries tend to be slow to sign on to such agreements and, if they sign, to implement them.
The article points to a promising direction outside the political-legal-policy sphere:
…the most encouraging local change is the emergence of many Facebook groups and blogs, such as Migrant Rights, that talk about abuse. They show that younger people in the Middle East and Asia are increasingly embarrassed about the exploitation of expatriate workers in their countries. That may do as much as any treaty to improve the plight of domestic workers.
Here’s hoping that such Facebook groups and blogs go global and soon.
global.gender.current 
South Africa is advanced than most countries when it comes to labour laws for most people more so for domestic workers. Most of the things deliberated on in the convention have long been in the labour law books of South Africa.
There is a problem though, domestic workers in South Africa from foreign countries are being financially abused because they fear to pursue legal ways to protect themselves. They are actually happy to be getting something at all. Where they come from there is nothing.
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