This article written by Simon Black, Associate Professor of Labour Studies at Brock University, originally appeared in The Conversation.
In thousands of households across Jamaica, domestic workers do the work of cooking, cleaning, gardening and caring for children, the elderly and people with disabilities.
While this work is essential to the functioning of the economy and to the well-being of many Jamaican families, domestic workers often experience low pay, poor working conditions and informal work arrangements. Due to their isolation in the home, they’re also vulnerable to sexual harassment and abuse.
Estimates put the number of domestic workers in Jamaica at around 56,000, 80 per cent of whom are women.
In 2016, Jamaica ratified International Labour Organization Convention No. 189, the Domestic Workers Convention. The landmark convention is the first international legal instrument to recognize domestic work as equivalent to all other kinds of work and is founded on “the fundamental premise that domestic workers are neither ‘servants’ nor ‘members of the family’ nor second-class workers.”
Jamaica is one of only 36 countries to have ratified the convention. To its credit, the Jamaican government has made progress toward making decent work a reality for domestic workers, including by raising the national minimum wage…
The Brock News
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