In Lebanon, a new employment contract to protect domestic workers

Most often it is women from Africa or Asia who came to Lebanon to be domestic workers or babysitters in private homes. There are nearly 200,000 and for years, NGOs have denounced the abuses of many employers: confiscated passports, miserable or non-existent wages, physical or moral violence, because some are housed in lamentable conditions, or do not have the right to go out. No day off, no paid vacation either.

The system is not completely abolished, but a new standardized employment contract comes into force. And it restores the rights of this foreign workforce. Ban on paying them under the Lebanese minimum wage. No more than 48 hours of weekly work. A weekly day of rest and annual paid leave. As well as a personal room, of which only they have the key. It is also forbidden to confiscate their passports.

This new employment contract also allows employees to resign and change employers. It may seem obvious in France, but in Lebanon, it is a giant step towards the end of a practice assimilated by NGOs to “modern slavery”.

English | September 21, 2020

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