Human Rights and International Labour Law issues concerning Migrant Women Working as Domestic Helpers in China

Abstract

This book addresses the human rights and international labour law issues concerning rural migrant women workers as domestic helpers in China and offers several legislative suggestions to the Chinese government. By describing the current de facto and de jure condition of rural migrant women working as domestic helpers in modern China, the study adopts a gender and an intersectionality approach to analyse the interconnected and overlapped dilemma faced by them. According to the identified problems and needs of migrant women workers as domestic helpers, namely, to be treated equally as other workers, to be guaranteed of decent labour conditions, and to be ensured of affordable access to justice, the study scanned in the international human rights treaties and international labour standards, especially those ratified by China, for pertinent instructions for better legislation and practice. Under the comparison between the derived guiding principles with the existing Chinese legislation, the study identifies several implementation gaps in the relevant areas and proposed suggestions accordingly. The recommendations are, included but not limited to, to adopt a comprehensive set of anti-discrimination law, to give legal expression to equal pay for work of equal value, to offer decent working conditions for domestic helpers, to establish Observatory for Domestic Helpers in the national labour union, and to make utmost of the Local Residents’ Committee in labour inspection and ensuring access to justice given the specific characteristics of rural migrant women domestic helpers.