Yearly demonstration of migrant domestic workers to demand better work conditions

On the first of May, the migrant women domestic workers (MWDW) in Lebanon celebrated the occasion of Labor Day for the seventh consecutive day, pressuring for the endorsement by the government of the 2011 International Labor Organization ILO Convention 189, effective since September 5, 2013, and related to proper working conditions. MWDWs from different nationalities marched side by side with other workers and civil society activists from St. Joseph Church in Monot, Achrafieh up till St Francis Church in Hamra where they organized a cultural and commercial festival. The main demands of the protestors are the following: cancel the sponsorship (kafala) system; find an alternative for the exclusive responsibility proviso which restricts the legal presence of MWDWs to one employer only; provide the option of terminating any manipulative and exploitative work contract; and give MWDWs their basic labor rights. The latter include, for example: the right to terminate the contract, to change the employer, to have a day off, to regulate hours of work and rest, and the right for a minimum wage. MWDWs demands also included the monitoring of working conditions; legal accountability of violating employers; the close monitoring of recruitment agencies, their treatment of workers; the review of recruitment and hiring procedures, and finally helping MWDWs to access available legal services. Organizations which took part in the action included, Anti-Racism Movement, KAFA, Caritas Lebanon- Migrant Center, Insan association, the Lebanese Center for Human Rights, Amel International and the Afro-Asian Migrant Center. (Al Akhbar, May 4, 2016)