Domestic workers need greater protection

A CALL is being made for legislation to be enacted that would ensure domestic workers are given greater protection in Barbados.

It was made by General Secretary of the Barbados Workers’ Union (BWU) Toni Moore, while speaking to the media during a press briefing held on Thursday.

Moore, who was at the time high-lighting the upcoming BWU 77th delegates conference to be held on August 25 and September 1 at Solidarity House, to be held under the theme “Delivering for All”, assured that this will be a major talking point.

“We will be focusing on the theme of course… We will also be expanding our commitment and our work in the area of delivering decent work for domestic workers.

“There are many of them [domestic workers] across Barbados working for less than the minimum wage; that is a wage assigned for shops, basically, but which Barbados has been using as the benchmark minimum wage. There are many who are working for less than that. There are many whose hours are way more than 40 hours and they don’t attract over time. “

“In the case of foreign domestic workers or those from outside of Barbados, we find a situation where they are coming to work [in] Barbados [and] their passports are being withheld from them. The conditions that they are working under are still extreme.”

Having launched a Domestic Workers Division of the BWU on World Day for Decent Work on October 7 2017, Moore said this year the conference will be asked to turn its attention to the commitment made to domestic workers.

“But more so, we are calling on the Government of Barbados to make good on the commitment which was made as far back as 2011 when, at the International Labour Organisation, that conference adopted Convention 189 on Decent Work for Domestic Workers.”

“At that time, our Ministry of Labour had committed that Barbados would be one of the first Caribbean countries that would ratify the Convention, putting it into law so that domestic workers, like all other workers, would enjoy protection under the law.”

Moore said that while persons may query whether domestic workers do not already receive protection under the law, unfortunately that is not so in most cases in Barbados. (JH)