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Report/Press release

Domestic Labour and Exploitation: The Case of Live-In Caregiver Program in Canada

Date

2015

Authors

Martin Gallié, Elsa Galerand, and Jeanne Ollivier Gobeil

Abstract

Conducted in partnership with the Pinay militants who have been actively working for the
defense of the rights of Filipino domestic workers in Quebec since 1991, this research aims to outline the effects of a lack of citizenship as different forms of privation and coercion organizing the specific exploitation of resident workers and the domesticity relationship. We also argue that the live-in requirement is part of a legal system which not only expresses, but also (re)organizes a "transitional form of exploitation" by way of a control on bodies located between slavery, "sexage" and employment (Colette Guillaumin: 1978), and which contributes to the production of an unfree form of labour. Also, we argue that this disposition, which was condemned by the ILO in the name of decent work, can be contested on national law grounds, through the right to liberty, guaranteed under article 7 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Throughout this report, it is the practical implications of this requirement to be living on the work premises - in terms of living conditions, work relationships, exploitation, and combatting rights violations - as experienced by the workers which are sought to be documented, in order to generate tools for analysis, information and mobilization

Number of pages

39

Responsible institution

Pinay, Service aux collectivités of UQAM, Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada

Place published

Montreal

File Attachments

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Economic sectors

Home child care providers and General relevance - all sectors

Content types

Policy analysis, Documented cases of abuse, and Current Policy

Target groups

(Im)migrants workers, Policymakers, and Researchers

Geographical focuses

Canada, Ontario, Alberta, Manitoba, Quebec, British Columbia, Other provinces, Federal, Philippines, Nova Scotia, and National relevance

Languages

French and English