ILO Domestic Work Convention to be ratified by July 31

DSC00087Georgetown : Members of the Caribbean Workers Network Steering Committee have left Guyana optimistic that the country will be the first in the Caribbean to ratify the International Labour Organisation’s (ILO’s) Convention #189 to protect domestic workers.

Representatives of the six-country network were in Guyana for their annual planning meeting and on Monday paid a courtesy call on the Labour Minister, Dr. Nanda Kishore Gopaul before departing. The Minister told the group, which included an ILO Representative Paula Robinson and representatives of Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica and Antigua and Barbuda, that the instruments of ratification should be at the ILO by this month end.

The group congratulated the Minister, in anticipation that Guyana will be the first Caribbean country to ratify this important Convention.  Ratification of this Convention will create the basis for Decent Work for persons who are employed as Household Service Workers, and ensure that the rights of these workers are not violated.

The Network also commended government for enacting a National Minimum Wage and a 40- hour work week for both Private and Public Sector employees, which came into effect on July 1.

Minister Gopaul reiterated Government’s commitment to implementing the Decent Work Country Programme and ensuring that conditions of work are safe and healthy for all categories of workers.

The Network, comprising members of Guyana, Barbados, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, St. Lucia and Antigua and Barbuda, has launched a campaign to encourage signatories to the Convention. Guyana is represented on the Steering Committee by Ms. Joycelyn Bacchus, Secretary of Red Thread.

 On May 31, last they presented a petition with more than 3,069 signatures to the Minister of Labour in support of a call for Caricom governments to support domestic workers in their search for a better life, through the ratification of International Labour Organisation Convention # 189.

Minister Gopaul assured the group that the Government is committed to ratifying Convention #189, as was indicated by President Donald Ramotar in his Address to the Nation on the occasion of Guyana’s Independence Anniversary on May 26 last.