The vast majority of domestic workers in Malaysia are migrants, mainly from Indonesia. The MTUC is running a project aimed at preventing the abuses and exploitation they often face. Interview with project officer Pari Moses.

SADSAWU is one of the oldest organisations defending domestic workers’ rights in Africa. It managed to secure a number of gains even prior to the ILO’s adoption of the international Convention on domestic work in June 2011. Myrtle Witbooi, a founding member and general secretary of the union and Chair of the International Domestic Workers Network (IDWN) , looks back on her 30 years as a union activist and the challenges linked to this new Convention.

The Dominican trade union confederation CASC has secured social security coverage for over 31,000 informal economy workers and their families. It also supports essential projects providing concrete assistance to Haitian migrants. Fighting poverty and labour rights violations, defending domestic workers... Gabriel del Rio, general secretary of CASC, outlines the many battles being waged by his union.

The Hong Kong Confederation of Trade Unions (HKCTU) is among the organisations most experienced in the defence of domestic workers in Asia. Its chief executive, Elizabeth Tang, looks back on the difficulties encountered in this struggle and the gains secured for both migrant and national domestic workers in Hong Kong.

The adoption of an international Convention on Domestic Work and accompanying recommendation was approved in principle at the last International Labour Conference. This is a welcome step forward for the many trade unions fighting to defend this particularly vulnerable group of workers. One of these unions is “Unite the union” in the United Kingdom, which supports the group “Justice for Domestic Workers”. Marissa Begonia, a member of the group, describes its activities and the reality of life as a migrant domestic worker.

How is the economic crisis affecting the large migrant population in Malaysia? G. Rajasekaran, general secretary of the MTUC (1), talks about trade union initiatives designed to help them. He also denounces the exploitation suffered by domestic workers, a particularly vulnerable category of migrants.