In 2011, to much acclaim and after much activism by domestic worker organisations, the International Labour Organisation (ILO) passed a new and historic Domestic Workers Convention (no. 189) and a Domestic Workers Recommendation (no. 201), aimed at improving the conditions for domestic workers and recognising them as workers, a formal legal status that they had often been denied in national labour legislation. Two events were held on Monday, November 13th 2023 to evaluate the promises and impact of the convention on domestic workers’ everyday experiences and organising efforts.

The roundtable discussion featured a discussion of domestic worker organising in Latin American by four scholars: María Lis Baiocchi (CONICET/FLACSO, Argentina), Friederike Fleischer (Universidad de los Andes, Colombia), Brandon Hunter-Pazzara (Georgetown University, US), and Dario Valles (California State University, Long Beach, US), moderated by Erynn Masi de Casanova (University of Cincinnati, US).