World leaders urge support for domestic workers treaty

Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and German Chancellor Angela Merkel called Tuesday on member states of the UN labour agency to support a new treaty that offers protection to domestic workers. "We must support the ILO convention for domestic workers," said Yudhoyono, underlining the importance of the treaty to his country as a "relatively large proportion" of the Southeast Asian state's migrant workers are domestic workers.
"I believe that this convention can provide guidance to the sending and host governments to protect migrant domestic workers," he told the International Labour Organisation's annual conference. Germany's Merkel also supported the call at the UN labour agency's meeting.
"This is an area that has been very much in the shadow of official employment. It's so important that standards are put down that makes it possible to actually respect human dignity and decent labour standards in this area," she said. "I wish you every success as an organisation for the ratification of this instrument because this may indeed be a milestone for fair and equitable labour conditions," added Merkel. The landmark treaty, aimed at protecting an estimated 52.6 million domestic workers worldwide, would ensure that these employees enjoy conditions "not less favourable" than other workers.