DOMESTIC workers, mostly women and children, continue to work without any policy protection in Bangladesh. The labour and women’s affairs advisers, when discussing domestic workers’ demands, including their employment status and workplace safety on April 27, proposed the idea of setting up a complaint mechanism for domestic workers. Many domestic workers present at the discussion organised by the Campaign for Popular Education shared their concerns that without legal protection their wages and work hours are arbitrarily decided by their employer. Many young women related how their children suffer without access to a publicly funded childcare centre. In 2022, the National Child Labour Survey reported approximately 76,000 children work in households, with 55.3 per cent being female. In 2001-2020, according to the Bangladesh Institute of Labour Studies, 1,560 domestic workers faced various forms of abuse, and 578 of them died at their workplaces. In this context, the proposal for a specific grievance mechanism to protect domestic workers is a glimmer of hope for domestic workers who remained legally unprotected and socio-economically ignored for decades. Â
The plight of the workers is a result of the lack of policy protection. In the absence of a national minimum wage, domestic workers are always exploited and underpaid. They are generally employed on oral contracts. They never get any of the employment benefits, such as severance pay, provident fund, gratuity, pension, accident benefits, medical allowance, etc. The Domestic Workers Protection and Welfare Policy 2015, meant to safeguard the rights and well-being of the workers, remained unimplemented because of successive governments’ negligence and the lack of will. The policy refers to conventional laws for addressing issues like unpaid wages, workplace accidents and abuse, but offers no independent monitoring framework. A 2021 study by Oxfam revealed that the policy’s implementation is almost non-existent. There are also High Court directives asking the government to develop an effective monitoring mechanism under the labour ministry. In this context, rights activists urged the government to ratify International Labour Organisation Convention 189 and 190 concerning the elimination of violence and harassment in the world of work and decent work for domestic workers.
In the prevailing policy vacuum, the government’s proposal to develop a complaint mechanism for domestic workers is a promissory move, but it must ensure that the promise is turned into reality. Along the same line, the government should address the other demands of domestic workers including employment status, trade union rights and access to publicly funded child care centres. The government should also consider ratifying the ILO conventions related to domestic workers rights. Legal measures alone cannot bring about fundamental changes and a social movement is necessary to bring about ideological change among employers and society.
