Malaysia now stands in isolation opposing the proposed ILO Convention for Domestic Workers. At the recent meeting in ILO on 16th of April 2011, it was reported that Malaysia will not consider engaging in discussing the draft text of a Convention. 93 member States including governments have indicated their replies after consultations with organizations of employers and workers. Unexpected support for the convention came from China, the Maldives, Sri Lanka and Thailand. This is a dramatic and favorable change from the position taken by the states at the last ILO Conference in June 2010.

With the exception of Malaysia, governments have generally welcomed the proposed texts and 39 of them explicitly stated that the text contained in the Report provides a satisfactory basis for the second discussion by the Conference at its 100th Session in June 2011.

During the last 10 months, many countries have changed their position. But surprisingly, Malaysia which sees domestic workers facing physical, psychological, sexual abuse, food deprivation, forced confinement, trafficking into forced labour, exploited, tortured and even killed chooses not to support a global Convention.

We have always taken pride in Malaysia's progressive approach towards safeguards for workers' rights, BUT the stand taken by our Government is indeed very embarrassing.

MTUC will seek the support of Timbalan Perdana Menteri to endorse the ILO's proposed Convention and Recommendation on Domestic Work to address the unique circumstances of domestic workers and provide safeguards and protection.

[May 6, 2011]

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MTUC Migrant Forum

In order to give effective voice to the millions of migrant workers in the country
and to enable MTUC to authoritatively represent them, the MTUC TDC 2010
unanimously adopted the following resolution:

NOTING that the extend of exploitation of migrant workers in the country is on
the rise, and

FURTHER NOTING that migrant workers are often denied the right to join a
union, and Migrant domestic workers' situation is far worse due to lack of any
kind of legal safeguards; hereby

RESOLVES to establish an MTUC Migrant Forum to give the two million workers
a legitimate channel to voice their problems and issues.

" It is astonishing to see how badly domestic workers are treated by employers who are often ordinary workers theselves. They do not put themselves in their employee's position. When we say that a domestic worker is doing a 15 hour day, their employers see it differently: For them, sweeping up and cleaning the house are not very arduous tasks. They don't understand that people need time for themselves, on Sundays, for example."

G. Rajasekaran,
General Secretary of
MTUC [1994-2010]