SOLIDARITY WITH DOMESTIC WORKERS

SOLIDARITY WITH DOMESTIC WORKERS:​

TIME FOR
RECOGNITION
AND RESPECT

In the Netherlands, an estimated 150,000 domestic workers, 80,000 alfahelpers and 50,000 PGB care providers work in private households. They take care of children and the elderly, do the laundry and (partially) take over the care of the household. This allows their employers to work, study or provide informal care. In doing so, they make an important contribution to society and the economy.

Most domestic workers fall under the Home Services Regulation and therefore have a poor legal position. Part of them are “undocumented”, they work in the Netherlands without valid residence documents. Their position is therefore extra vulnerable.

The corona crisis has once again made clear how badly the position of these employees is regulated. When the lockdown started in March, many were sent home unpaid by their employer. Unprotected by social security, they suddenly lost their income overnight and ran into serious acute problems.

Domestic workers are not tools that you can take out of the closet when you need it and put away when it doesn’t work out. They are real people who do real work. The time when this work could be looked down on because it is mainly done by women and by migrants is over. And with this the time of discrimination in labor law.

The undersigned therefore join the solidarity call of the Parliament of Cleaners of the FNV to end the exclusion and the disenfranchisement of their colleagues who have been fighting for recognition and equal rights for so long.

We call on all parties involved to support the domestic workers who have run into problems.

Government: finally ratify the 2011 International Labor Organization treaty (ILO Convention 189) as so many other countries have already done. This establishes the same rights for domestic workers as for all other workers.

Recognize the important contribution of migrants to society and the economy. And give this a shape.

Work on a structural solution to give domestic workers full rights and protection.