Push to Protect Domestic Workers

Khmer Times
Tin Sokhavuth

Vorn Pao (center), president of the Independent Democracy of Informal Economy Association. Supplied

A labor union yesterday called on the government to ratify the International Convention on Domestic Workers and to amend the country’s Labor Law to improve the rights and working conditions of all workers in Cambodia.

Vorn Pao, president of the Independent Democracy of Informal Economy Association (IDEA), told Khmer Times that the government needed to take such steps to better protect domestic workers.

“If the government ratifies the 189th ILO convention, the government must also amend the Labor Law to adjust it with the convention that requires member countries to include inputs from the convention, such as minimum wages, maximum working hours, holidays, working conditions. In short, the government should give the same rights to domestic workers as to garment workers,” said Mr. Pao.

Citing data from 2013, he said that almost 80 percent of the more than 240,000 domestic workers in the Kingdom were women, with only 14 percent earning more than $70 a month, in addition to long working days and little time off.

Mr. Pao said he has long called on the government to make such changes, but until recently has been ignored. However, recently, officials at the Ministry of Labor told him they were considering the issue.

Khmer Times was unable to reach the ministry spokesperson to confirm Mr. Pao’s claim.

The Convention on Domestic Workers, formally known as the Convention Concerning Decent Work for Domestic Workers, entered into force in 2013.

“Each member [ratifying state] shall take measures to ensure that domestic workers, like workers generally, enjoy fair terms of employment as well as decent working conditions and, if they reside in the household, decent living conditions that respect their privacy,” reads article 6 of the convention.

Khmer Times could not get comment from ILO representatives in Cambodia.