DENIAL of labour and social protection rights to migrant domestic workers is leading to exploitation and forced labour in Thailand, Malaysia, and Singapore, says a new report by the International Labour Organization (ILO). 

The report, based on interviews with 1,201 domestic workers between July and September 2022 in Malaysia, Singapore, and Thailand, said long hours and low wages were the norm for migrant domestic workers in all the countries surveyed. 

Titled “Skilled to care; forced to work? Recognizing the skills profiles of migrant domestic workers in Asean amid forced labour and exploitation”, the report indicates that 29% of surveyed migrant domestic workers in Malaysia were under ILO’s statistical definition of forced labour, as were 7% of surveyed workers in Singapore and 4% in Thailand. 

The report said indicators of involuntariness include not being able to quit their job, having to stay in the job longer than agreed, and being made to work without overtime pay, among others. 

“In all three countries on average domestic workers surveyed worked hours well in excess of those legislated for other workers. When adjusted for the internationally standard working week, none of the respondent domestic workers from the study earned the minimum wage,” it said. 

Meanwhile, Anna Engblom, Chief Technical Adviser of ILO’s Triangle in Asean programme, which produced the study, said this could no longer be accepted. 

The report highlighted the relatively low enrolment rates amongst migrant domestic workers in social security schemes, a situation that can amplify the isolation of workers and their vulnerability to forced labour practices. 

It said various states also restrict domestic workers’ ability to organise or collectively bargain with legal and social obstacles still preventing domestic workers from forming, and sometimes joining, trade unions in the study countries. 

Engblom said domestic workers needed to be recognised as skilled employees in terms of pay and employment conditions. 

The study recommended that authorities ratify and implement ILO’s Domestic Workers Convention, 2011 (No. 189), Forced Labour Convention, 1929 (No. 29), and the Protocol of 2014 to the Forced Labour Convention, 1930 to ensure that domestic workers enjoyed rights at least equal to those of other workers, in law and in practice. 

“Instances of forced labour should result in criminal charges and policies changed to prevent its occurrence. Skills recognition opportunities for domestic workers should also be explored and migration pathways should be appropriately flexible, accessible, and rights-based,” it said. 

The report was produced by the ILO as part of the Triangle in Asean programme, which is funded by the Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and Global Affairs Canada. – Bernama, June 15, 2023.