Sarath Wijesinghe President’s Counsel Former Ambassador to UAE and Israel. [1]Chairman Consumer Affairs Authority, President Ambassador’s forum

Domestic Workers

Domestic workers are those employed in households or personal level of private individuals or families, prevalent worldwide. Rules for domestic workers are not properly regularized in Sri Lanka or in many countries though attempts have been made to prepare international conventions and legal systems in some parts of the world. 100^th sessions of ILO on 16^th June 2011 agreed and ratified the domestic workers convention which is only on paper as it is only an international convention not properly effective in all the countries in the world family. The convention is not enforceable and effective as a nonstarter. Domestic servant’s ordinance 28 of 1871 is one of the oldest acts passed on this subject which has not taken forward for implementation. It defines domestic servants are those hired by the employer on payment of wages and generally they are given accommodation and duties are given by the employer at his/her discretion. Above definition can be considered as universal in the absence of any other by any activist groups on employment or human rights groups.

Local and International Legal structure

 Article c 180 of ILO is the most frequently used Convention on domestic employees which is also a nonstarter and an ineffective international instrument. Domestic workers are fully under the control of the employer at his mercy somewhat akin to slavery where the workers from villages (in Asian and African countries) are at the mercy of the employer with no legal or procedural safeguards as in developed countries where domestic servants are scarce and expensive except migrant workers. Domestic servants are maids, gardeners, Chaffers, gardeners, or providing general assistance for the household and/or their trade and vocation. In Pakistan and India ‘Samindaers’ (richest rich and  landlords/landowners ) take families in lifetime impressment/ransom for labor due to their poverty and landlessness which is well known and in Sri Lanka domestics are mainly taken from vulnerable groups opt to be domestics due to poverty which is fortunately despairing today due to the advancement of the attitudes, education life style and existence of laws ( though not effective) such as Child protection, Protection for Women, Labor laws which are not properly and powerfully enforced.

Legislation in Sri Lanka

 Shop and office ordinance on employment of 19/54 gives some guidelines for good government servants and the judiciary to act fairly with sympathy on given opportunities. Wages Ordinance 43/1941 and provident fund ordinance 15/58 workmen compansation19/43 47/56 young person’s  payment of gratuity establishment of labor department and labor tribunals and  active participation of Policy and the legal structure are good signs on the right direction. In the United Kingdom domestic workers enjoy some freedom and a reasonable pay and protection. It is only rich families who can afford to employ domestic workers and rich and aristocratic families ‘’Butlers’’ are well paid and enjoys some kind of freedom. Historical domestics employed in highest strata of the society rose up to high positions in UK as even slaves during dark era/ages rose up to leading positions.  In the west the lifestyle is different to be self-sufficient and able to attend to personal affairs by themselves without domestics and can be satisfied with part-time workers for cleaning and such assistance only without fulltime domestic servants who are expensive and difficult to find. Article 1 of C189 defines the term domestic worker as work performed on or for a household or households.

Domestic workers oversees

 Currently majority of domestic workers worldwide are females. Most Sri Lankan female domestic workers are employed in the Middle East as domestic workers, namely housemaids in vulnerable and unfortunate situations with no safety protection and control or supervision of third party to look after them though the Embassies and the representatives of Bureau of Labor is expected to protect them. The treatment to the domestic labor in Middle East and such countries are pathetic and sad as they are subjected to ill-treatment and even torture by the employer and agents. Local International media and social media is full of such news on horrific incidents apparently with no solutions in the sight. Domestic workers are under to control of the agents/employers[Ma1]   who are supposed to be protected by the Embassies and the representatives of the Employment bureau, generally known to be inefficient and ineffective. Middle East is a new oil rich country who can afford domestic labor supplied by Asian and African countries through job agents.

Caregivers a category of domestic workers?

 Caregivers are employed world over looking after the sick and elderly in many countries with a substantial salary expected to stay indoors. Caregivers are trained para medics trained to look after elderly and sick mainly in economically advanced countries. Israel and Japan with long life expectancy and has a demand for foreign caregivers who too are somewhat domestic workers of high salaries and protection followed by many countries. Sri Lanka is in need of foreign exchange and the best way is to send labor to countries where they can afford to domestic and other workers at a high cost of losing mothers for children and labor force for the development of the nation. Domestic workers in Sri Lanka are not properly looked after or covered by the labor laws of the said countries. The organization that supervises the interest for the Sri Lankan labor overseas labor in Sri Lanka is Sri Lanka Bureau of Labor which is established for the betterment for labor in Sri Lanka and abroad. Employers seeking employment overseas are bound to obtain permission approval and guidance from this institution. Apparently. Not functioning as expected, thereby those employed in foreign countries especially in the Middle East are not protected, thus exposed. Respective embassies in those countries are expected to work together with foreign employment bureau, but the response from those countries is sad, pathetic and unfortunate. In the Middle East, one in every three are domestic workers are females. Domestic workers are highly vulnerable in destination countries. Training and education play a major role in this context. In the Philippines 30% of the population depends on foreign employment and to their advantage they are trained by the state foreign employment for the job as public policy and their knowledge of English is comparably high. Therefore, they are successful in their respective trades and employment over many other foreign labor in the Middle East and world over. For an instance in world and western countries Philippines are employed in technical domestic and other fields that brings revenue to their country.

Encourage and improve Sri Lankan domestic labor to be professional and international

Though Sri Lankans are supposed to be educational, foreign languages are limited thereby the exposure is also limited. These are areas either the state or private enterprises must take over training English and other languages for respective jobs. Therefore, it is the time for the governance for the private sector to train Sri Lankans locally for skills languages to be exported to countries as skilled employees. There should be a transparent public policy and schemes to compete with Philippines and other successful countries to train Sri Lankan labor to lift from unskilled to skilled. In the domestic field too, the government and private sector must take steps to train languages to uplift themselves which will bring foreign exchange and enhance the development of the country. The news we receive from the countries where Sri Lankan labor is employed is pathetic and there are no signs proper steps are being taken, either by the government or Employment Bureau which is unfortunately connected to and influences by politics and politicians, thus bribery and corruption that is available like air. We presume this summary of this essay will be an eye opener for the government, labor organizations and non-government organizations agitating consistently for up liftmen of less privileged.  Sarath Wijesinghe sarath7@hotmail.co.uk

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[1] Ormer

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 [Ma1]