Regulating Decent Work for Domestic Workers
On Monday, March 29, McGill's faculty of Law will host Regulating Decent Work for Domestic Workers: International and Comparative Dialogue Celebrating the ILO at 90 & Preparing for Standard-setting into the Future, an international seminar that will bring together leading experts from around the world to discuss the regulatory possibilities and challenges associated with the International Labor Organisation's landmark (ILO) decision to move forward on setting standards to protect domestic workers.
More than forty years after having recognized the urgency of a study on the working conditions of domestic workers, the International Labour Organization is on track to adopt an international labour standard on decent work for domestic workers before the end of 2011.
This international seminar aims to bring together social partners, including domestic workers' associations, and international and interdisciplinary researchers specialized in the field in order to encourage an intensive consultation between the various participants concerned by the issue of decent work for domestic workers. This meeting will also present an opportunity for exchange between researchers and social partners to identify the policy issues involved and to compare different regulatory approaches adopted in various countries. The seminar also seeks to provide an opportunity for social partners to share their reflections on the presentations and their expertise in the area before the two upcoming sessions of the International Labour Conference in Geneva in June 2010 and 2011.
Finally, this activity offers a chance for Canada to celebrate the 90 years since the ILO was established in 1919.
To that end, a special exhibit commemorating the time during which Montreal, and McGill specifically, was host to the ILO during the Second World War will be presented in the Atrium of the Faculty of Law. A critical ILO constitutional document, the 1944 Declaration of Philadelphia, was prepared while the ILO was at McGill. It famously declares the following:
- Labour is not a commodity;
- Freedom of expression and of association are essential to sustained progress;
- Poverty anywhere constitutes a danger to prosperity everywhere;
- All human beings, irrespective of race, creed or sex, have the right to pursue both their material well-being and their spiritual development in conditions of freedom and dignity, of economic security and equal opportunity.
WHAT: Decent Work for Domestic Workers: International and Comparative Dialogue Celebrating the ILO at 90 & Preparing for Standard-setting into the Future
WHEN: Monday, March 29, 2010, 8:45 a.m. - 6:00 p.m.
WHERE: Room 316 and Atrium, Chancellor Day Hall, Faculty of Law, Ï㽶ÊÓƵ, 3644 Peel Street
FULL PROGRAMME:Â