Domestic Work is Work! Care Work is Work! Domestic workers are Workers!

Migrante Canada Statement

Who provides the essential labour of Canada’s care economy, of taking care of the children, the elderly of families, and households across the country?

Racialized and migrant women do.

These women make up the majority of domestic workers who take care of Canada’s children and elders, so their parents and adult relations are able to go out to work. With no national childcare and eldercare program in Canada, racialized and migrant women do this essential and valuable work, but  they do not get the respect and workers’ protections as domestic workers.

The UN Convention 189 Concerning Decent Work for Domestic Workers (C-189), a global convention created in 2011, recognized that domestic workers have rights and protections as workers, not only in Canada, but around the globe.  Governments are responsible for the absence, the lack of, the neglect of the rights and welfare of domestic workers.

Governments and policy makers treat  domestic workers as invisible and disposable. We say domestic workers are essential, not disposable. The struggle of domestic workers are part of the broader fight for migrant justice, gender and racial justice, and economic justice in Canada.

Migrante Canada stands and marches proudly with domestic workers in Canada and joins hands in solidarity with domestic workers across the globe on International Domestic Workers (IDW) Day. This IDW honours the millions of women—many of them racialized and migrant workers—whose care, cleaning, and household labour sustain families, communities, and economies, and yet their work is too often rendered invisible.

Migrante Canada highlights the case of domestic worker Mary Jane Veloso trafficked to Indonesia, arrested and jailed on trumped-up charges of drug trafficking, sentenced to death by firing squad in Indonesia but was saved from death by an loud and strong international clamor to spare her life.  That same international support for Mary Jane Veloso enabled her transfer from Indonesia to the Philippines, but instead of being granted her freedom by the Philippine President Marcos, Jr, he simply traded her death row cell in Indonesia for a prison cell in the Philippines. With no apparent bureaucratic logic and with no compassion whatsoever, Mary Jane Veloso still remains behind bars, 15 years a prisoner and counting.

Domestic workers in Canada continue to face profound precarity. Like modern-day slaves, they work under closed work permits that limit freedom and foster exploitation. They face multiple barriers to permanent residency and family reunification. They are excluded  from full labour rights and protections. They are vulnerable to wage theft, unsafe working conditions, and physical and sexual abuse.

Migrante Canada calls on policymakers to do what is right. Canada has dragged its feet in ratifying and fully implementing ILO Conventions C-189 and C-190 – recognizing domestic work as real work and ensuring protections against harassment, violence, and exploitation. Canada needs to guarantee full labour protection, including fair wages, health and safety standards, collective bargaining rights, and access to social services. Canada needs to end employer-specific work permits or closed work permits, which trap workers in abusive and modern slave-like conditions.

Migrante Canada stands unwavering in its commitment to fight for all domestic workers in Canada and around the world. It continues to build communities of solidarity where every domestic worker is valued, protected, and free.

Migrante Canada continues its campaign to free Mary Jane Veloso from her prison cell in the Philippines and will not stop until she is free.

Dignity. Decency. Justice for Domestic Workers.

MIGRANTE CANADA

International Domestic Workers Day | 16 June 2025

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