The International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) is urging GCC members to revise the proposed unified contract for domestic workers in line with ILO standards:
The GCC is portraying the new contract as a means to tackle the raft of problems faced by workers; however, the new contract falls well short of ILO standards on freedom of association and collective bargaining and provides no protection for workers against abuse, harassment and violence. Provisions on working hours, overtime, freedom of movement and other important issues are weak or altogether absent.
Read more about the campaign update - Opens in new tab, the letter written to GCC members, - Opens in new tab and a review of the provisional contract - Opens in new tab on the ITUC website.
Read the Equal Times opinion piece on the contract here - Opens in new tab. Excerpt below:
There is no indication that the SEC will be accompanied by enforcement mechanisms to secure its implementation.
The document also contains loopholes that the employers can use for their own benefit. For instance, they could state that a worker’s injury was deliberately self-inflicted which frees employers from providing medical care as stipulated in Article 4 of the contract.
And in its current form, the document falls short of the minimum standards set forth in ILO Convention 189 – the Domestic Work Convention.