Coinciding with the International Day for Domestic Workers, the founding committee of the Union of Domestic Workers in Lebanon issued a statement in which they saluted all workers, especially domestic workers, and talked about their suffering in Lebanon.
The text of the statement read as follows “Due to the sponsorship system, we are still in deprivation of our legitimate rights, starting with the confiscation of our identification papers, depriving us from one day of weekly rest, fair wages, our freedom of movement, racial discrimination against our rights, bullying and cynicism toward us. While we are doing the most important jobs in the homes of the families we work with, through to our contribution in building society, and by strengthening the role of women, through helping her enter the job market.”
The committee demanded “official institutions to work their way to abolish the sponsorship system and stop the violations perpetrated against us, and then to deal with us as workers and not as slaves. Therefore, we ask the Ministry of Labor and the concerned embassies and consulates to work to abolish the recruitment offices and restrict it to official departments and institutions only.”
“The abolition of all forms of prosecution of workers, the abolition of all fines and allowing workers to change their workplace until they leave Lebanon after overcoming the current Coronavirus pandemic”, according to the same committee.
The committee pointed out that “what is proposed today are amendments to the laws and a proposal for a unified contract of employment or other proposals for revision, which do not give workers their rights or preserve their dignity”,requesting “to sign a license application for the Domestic Workers Union, which the Ministry of Labor has been informed of for nearly five years, in order to sign ILO’s International Convention No. 189 concerning Decent Work for Domestic Workers.
#Lebanon #ILO #DomesticWorkers #Sponsorship #LaborLaw #WorkersRights
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