Statement on International Labour Day

KUALA LUMPUR 1 May, 2010: The first May Day in 1886 celebrated the successful struggle for an 8 hour work day. Today International Workers’ Day is celebrated as a public holiday throughout the world while most migrant domestic workers are still working about 12-16 hours a day, without a day off. For hundreds of millions of domestic workers however, decent working conditions are 124 years behind.

This International Workers Day, domestic workers in Asia urge their governments to support an International Labour Organization (ILO) Convention on Domestic Work this coming June. Together we must send the message that all workers, whether in a house or a factory, are workers deserving the same rights we fought to establish over a century ago.

Last year, the Malaysian government, through its reply to the ILO had opted to only support a weaker, non-binding international recommendation instead of an ILO Convention on Domestic Work. CARAM Asia a regional network member of NGOs and domestic workers associations across the Asia Pacific region feel that the time has come for governments to rectify an immoral practise that had prevailed for centuries, that is the slavery like treatment of domestic workers!

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100 years old women’s day: migrant women robbed off rights

CARAM Asia’s Statement on International Women’s Day

KUALA LUMPUR 8 March, 2010: 100 years after the world recognized the role of women in society, women are still robbed off their rights.

On the occasion of the 100th year anniversary of International Women’s Day, CARAM Asia calls upon governments in both sending and receiving countries to protect the rights of migrant women who constitute more than half of the migrant population in the world today. CARAM Asia also urges States to invest in the health -including sexual, reproductive and HIV programmes and services – and education of women to ensure that migration becomes a choice rather than a necessity for survival.

In an increasingly globalised world, female migrant workers face intersectional discrimination of class, race, religion, and gender due to statelessness or their irregular status. Neo-liberal strategies have caused the commodification of women’s labour whereby profits rest on women’s labour and sexuality. Influenced by market fundamentalism and pro-capitalism, the business sector prey on women’s labour as a means to gain from a workforce which is unskilled, cheap and deemed as easily subjugated by state and employers. Governments must ensure women are protected against scrupulous agents who sell women’s labour and employers who exploit them.

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