During big holidays such as Christmas, social media buzzes with people struggling to cope without domestic workers. Clearly, the workers make a huge hidden contribution to households and the economy. Yet illegal exploitation of these vital women workers continues – and it’s urgent our government steps in to stop it, says Blandina Bobson.
An ‘Uber’ app for cooks and cleaners? How tech is starting to change the lives of informal domestic workers
On International Domestic Workers’ day, Fatema Tuz Johoora and Tarek Aziz explain how gig economy apps can make Bangladesh’s invisible army of domestic workers visible, as well as offering new opportunities to help them claim their rights to better pay and conditions.
It’s time for the UK to start caring about its carers
Millions of people provide essential paid and unpaid care such as support for children, disabled, ill and older people. Yet their huge contribution contrasts starkly with threadbare state support for their work. Anam Parvez and Silvia Galandini look at the high price carers, and especially women, pay for society undervaluing care – and the policies we need to fix our broken care infrastructure.
So much of the work that millions of Asian women do is invisible: here’s how to change that and value unpaid care
The huge economic contribution of women carers in Asia and the Pacific remains invisible, undervalued and unsupported by governments. Changing that means better research, investment in public services, and including carers in policy making, say Myrah Nerine Butt and Saleha Shah
How can we persuade firms to improve employees’ lives? Here’s what I’ve learned during a decade in workers’ rights…
Oxfam’s workers’ rights expert Rachel Wilshaw shares six insights from her experiences of working with companies to drive progress on decent wages and conditions.
Governments know shockingly little about the millions of informal and unpaid women workers – and, in a world that undervalues their labour, that’s no accident
Millions of unpaid care and informal workers too often live in poverty, face long hours with harsh conditions, and see their efforts dismissed as “not real work”. On International Workers’ Day, Alex Bush calls for those in power to find out much more about these women as a crucial first step to valuing their work.