Domestic Workers Free the Maids

A new treaty aims to stop abuse

Without them many an economy would grind to a halt: the global army of between 50m and 100m domestic workers, most of them women and children. Yet tucked away in kitchens and nurseries, mainly in the Middle East and Asia, their wages often go unpaid, they are rarely granted any time off, and many face physical and sexual abuse.

The International Labour Organisation (ILO) hopes to change all this with a new treaty adopted on June 16th at its annual conference. The Convention Concerning Decent Work for Domestic Workers has been three years in the making. Its goal is to limit working hours, guarantee weekly days off, ensure a minimum wage and protect domestic workers from violent employers.

Only a few delegates – government officials as well as national representatives of employers and workers – voted against (Swaziland and a couple of employer groups, including the Confederation of British Industry), but there were some notable abstentions. Predictably, they included Malaysia. A series of abuse cases led Indonesia to ban its citizens from going to work there as maids from 2009 until May this year. More surprisingly, the British government, too, preferred not to vote either way. It said the treaty would be too onerous, particularly the parts regulating working hours and health and safety.

In contrast, the six wealthy monarchies of the Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC), where abuse of domestic workers is common, had a change of heart. Initially, they opposed the convention, arguing that it was not only impractical, but unnecessary: workers, they said, were treated like members of the families who employed them – though ask Sumiati Binti Salan Mustapa, a maid whose Saudi employer stabbed, beat and burned her. This year the GCC shifted its position and even suggested several changes that strengthened the treaty.

The convention now has to be ratified by governments, which is likely to take several years. Some countries may never follow through, despite having voted for the treaty. In the meantime, abuses continue, although things have recently improved. In the Middle East several countries are drafting legislation about domestic workers and are looking to the convention for guidance. Others now have hotlines for domestic workers to report abuse.

Yet the most encouraging local change is the emergence of many Facebook groups and blogs, such as Migrant Rights, that talk about abuse. They show that younger people in the Middle East and Asia are increasingly embarrassed about the exploitation of expatriate workers in their countries. That may do as much as any treaty to improve the plight of domestic workers.

家庭女傭 釋放女傭

旨在禁止虐待的新條約

全球約有五千萬到一億的家政服務大軍，如果沒有他們，許多經(jīng)濟都會慢慢停下來。他們中的大多數(shù)人是婦女和兒童。他們忙碌在中東和亞洲的一些國家的廚房和托兒所，他們常常拿不到應得的報酬，很少有假期，許多人經(jīng)常遭遇肉體和性方面的虐待。

國際勞工組織6月16日在其年會上通過了一項新條約，希望藉此改變所有這一切。《家政工人體面工作協(xié)定》已醞釀三年。其目的在于：限制工人的工作時間，保證工人每周得到休息，確保最低工資，保護家政人員免受雇主暴力侵犯。

只有幾個代表團——雇主、家政工人的政府官員或國家代表——投票反對(斯韋士蘭和包括英國行業(yè)聯(lián)合會在內(nèi)的幾個雇主小組)，但也有幾國棄權(quán)，頗為引人注目。其中包括馬來西亞，這一點可以預見。因為馬來西亞發(fā)生了一系列的虐待案件，印尼自2009年到今年5月，禁止本國公民去馬來西來做仆工。最令人感到驚奇的是，英國政府也棄權(quán)了。他們認為這項條約太過苛刻，特別是那些涉及工作時間和健康安全方面的規(guī)定。

相反，虐仆事件屢見不鮮的6個富裕的海灣合作理事會君主國卻改變了立場。一開始他們反對這項協(xié)定，堅持認為這項協(xié)定不僅不切實際，而且沒有必要：他們聲稱雇主都已經(jīng)將仆人當作自家人對待了——不過最好還是問問穆斯塔法，她曾被沙特雇主用刺，打和燙的手段虐待過。今年海灣合作理事會國家改變了立場，還為完善條約提出了一些更改的建議。

約定還須征得政府的批準，這項程序也許會延續(xù)幾年時間。有些國家盡管投票支持了這項條約，但也有可能無法堅持到最后。同時虐仆事件還在持續(xù)，盡管最近情況有了好轉(zhuǎn)。中東幾個國家正在起草有關(guān)家政工人的法律，希望以此約定作為指導。其他國家現(xiàn)在也為家政人員報告虐仆事件開通了熱線。

但最令人感到鼓舞的變化是諸如“移民權(quán)利”這樣的許多臉譜小組和博客的出現(xiàn)，他們對虐仆問題展開討論。他們表示，中東和亞洲的許多年輕人對于剝削外來移民工人的行為漸漸感到羞愧。這也許會與條約一樣能為提高家政工人的困境有所幫助。

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