Government Submits to Congress 189 Obliging to Recognize Unemployment of Domestic Workers

“Recognition of Justice.” Government spokeswoman Isabelle Rodriguez said the Council of Ministers had agreed to send to the House of Representatives this Tuesday that Spain would ratify the 189th WTO Convention on Domestic Workers. The international agreement, since 2011, has been a constant demand of domestic workers’ groups for the last decade, which implies equalization of labor rights and social protection. Specifically, because it means that the signatory country must recognize the right to unemployment of these workers, which is now discriminated against in Spain, as recently decided by European justice.

As the second vice-president and Minister of Labor, Yolanda Dias, said, the Council of Ministers agreed to send Ratification of Convention 189 to Parliament on April 5 so that the court could support the move and Spain could join the other signatory members. countries. “This is a matter of justice and one more thing: fulfilling our commitments and affirming that the path to labor rights that this government has taken will never leave domestic workers,” Diaz said Tuesday.

“Legislative adjustments required by international standards are already underway,” the Ministry of Labor said. Diaz recalled last week that “there has been no progress in this agreement for more than ten years” as it dates back to 2011. “Correct Discrimination” experienced by this group in “Working Conditions and Rights”.

This includes the recognition of unemployment and other rights

The International Labor Organization (ILO) Convention 189 covers a range of labor and social protection rights that signatory states must provide for domestic labor, mainly by women, and which “continues the preamble to be invaluable and invisible.” Recalls.

Ratification of this International Regulation requires that measures be taken to “eliminate discrimination in employment and occupation” and that “domestic workers enjoy conditions no less favorable than those of workers in general in terms of the protection of the safety of society”.

These two issues have significant practical implications for domestic workers in Spain. They clearly imply recognition of the right to collective unemployment, from which they are currently excluded, and which the Court of Justice of the European Union has found to imply indirect discrimination on the grounds of sex.

In addition, the obligation to end collective discrimination “in terms of employment and occupation” may affect other historical claims of domestic workers, such as the disappearance of a formula for dismissal without cause, as cheaper than compensation for dismissal. Rest. Also, they do not have access to Fogasa to protect workers in the event of non-payment of wages and compensation and to contribute social security to their effective wages, among other things.

The agreement signed by the government on Tuesday acknowledges that legislative changes will be needed, but while in the past the CEO of Mariano Rajoy felt that Spanish legislation “posed some difficulty in complying with certain provisions of the agreement”, the coalition now points. “The specific elements of the existing regulations that need to be adapted do not preclude the high level of compatibility between Spanish domestic law and the WTO 189 Convention in general,” the agreement said. Therefore, the executive promotes ratification.

Unemployment will be regulated this year

The coalition agreement between the PSOE and United We Can included the ratification of Convention 189 and the “priority” culmination of full integration into the general social security scheme for domestic workers in the legislature. The pandemic has hampered the usual plans of the Ministry of Labor, warned Yolanda Diaz last week, so that the ratification of the agreement has finally reached the middle of the coalition mandate.

The signature will come shortly after the blow to European justice, which has ruled that denial of unemployment to this group implies indirect discrimination on the basis of sex. The issue has reached the European Court of Justice thanks to a complaint by a Galician worker that ended in a historic sentence for the group.

Ratification has taken “a very long time” for groups of domestic workers, and they warn that now what it dictates must be put into practice. “This should include the recognition of all rights on an equal footing as general regime rights in order to end all forms of discrimination,” they said from inside the country on Tuesday.

The Ministry of Labor announced that this year the right of unemployment of domestic workers will be legalized, as well as the end of “other discrimination” of these employees, among which Yolanda Dias mentioned the dismissal.