COSATU worried by the rise in domestic worker’s abuse in the country   

21 February 2017

The Congress of South African Trade Unions is troubled by a spike in the incidents of abuse of domestic workers in South Africa. The federation has been troubled by a number of workers, who have been reporting incidents of abuse by their own employers to the federation. This also follows the revelation that some employers were withholding the identity documents of foreign nationals and were also underpaying them.

Domestic workers remain outside South Africa’s Labour Law and its protection. While the abuse of domestic workers is prevalent, we have seen few prosecutions, convictions, or punishments for these violations. The government needs to show some political will to make sure that employers comply with the country’s laws.

We are urging the Department of Labour to increase its monitoring and enforcement mechanisms to help domestic workers from sexual and emotional abuse, including those that are subjected to human trafficking.

Without any deliberate and adequate training and awareness amongst workers and employers, the Department of Labour (DoL) will continue to struggle to monitor and enforce sanctions. The lack of training and awareness makes many employees feel afraid to confront employers even if they know their rights as workers are being violated or they are feeling exploited.

It is not enough that South Africa has adopted the Convention on Domestic Workers by the International Labour Organisation (ILO), we need to see more deliberate action to implement the convention.

We are also urging the Human Rights Commission to do more to protect these workers because so far, the Human Rights Commission has failed these workers. We need to see more action from them to protect and rescue these workers from the modern day slavery working conditions.

Issued Sizwe Pamla, National Spokesperson, COSATU, 21 February 2017