Domestic workers' rights are just as important as their employers'

The International Labour Organisation recently adopted a historic set of global standards aimed at improving the working conditions of tens of millions of domestic workers worldwide. These are contained in the Convention on Domestic Workers. The new ILO standards set out that domestic workers around the world who care for families and households, must have the same basic labour rights as those available to other workers: reasonable hours of work, weekly rest of at least 24 consecutive hours, a limit on in-kind payment, clear information on terms and conditions of employment, as well as respect for fundamental principles and rights at work including freedom of association and the right to collective bargaining.

The Secretary-General of the Central Organisation of Trade Unions, Francis Atwoli, upon is return from the ILO session that adopted the Convention, declared that COTU would take the lead in ensuring that domestic workers in Kenya were properly protected under the terms of the Convention, and that COTU would be leading the charge to ensure that the Convention was domesticated and implemented fully in Kenya. His pronouncements, however, have set the cat among the pigeons; many employers of domestic workers claim that one of Mr Atwoli's demand, to wit, that they be paid a minimum wage of KES 7,000 is impractical and that they will be unable to afford the services of domestic workers if it is implemented and enforced. Some have gone so far as to claim that since they earn less than the KES 7,000 Mr Atwoli is claiming on behalf of domestic workers, it would be impossible for them to spend their entire incomes on domestic help and that an alternative solution, including in-kind payments, should be considered.

It is instructive that the debate in Kenya has revolved around the question of pay without considering the sometimes inhumane conditions under which domestic workers work. Every year, thousands upon thousands of domestic workers, many of them under-age, are sexually assaulted and otherwise abused by their employers, without viable avenues to file complaints or receive care or support. It is also lost on those claiming that they cannot afford a minimum wage for domestic workers that by keeping their wages artificially low, the domestic workers are in effect subsidising their employers' cost of living, ensuring that they can afford luxuries that are unattainable for the domestic workers. Indeed, if a person cannot afford the services of a domestic worker at the measly KES 7,000 that COTU recommends, they should not have domestic workers serving them!

For decades, Kenyan domestic workers have suffered at the hands of their employers. In addition to the long working hours and poor pay, many are frequently assaulted by their employers, denied time off, prevented from seeing or speaking to their families, denied medical care when unwell, and for the majority of female domestic workers, whether children or adult, coerced into abusive sexual relationships with their employers. The adoption of this Convention by the ILO marks a watershed moment, especially in Kenya, and it should be domesticated and implemented in the shortest time possible. For Kenyans with the capacity to engage the services of a domestic worker, it is time that they realised that these services are not a license to do with them as they please, but should be treated with the same weight as other labour relationships. While we are reforming the government of Kenya, and its institutions, we should also reform the manner in which our domestic arrangements are managed or organsied.