A bill that would provide documentation and protection of domestic workers as well as employers of domestic workers acrossthe country passed second reading in the Senate.
The bill titled, “A Bill for an Act to Provide for the Documentation and Protection of Domestic Workers and Employers and for Other Matters Connected Therewith, 2024”, was sponsored by Sen. Hussaini Babangida-Uba.
In his lead debate, Senator Hussaini Babangida-Uba said the bill, when passed into law, would safeguard the interests of both the domestic worker and employer by addressing abuses and tragedies between both parties which has become a recurrent incident in our society.
“In Nigeria, the absence of defined processes for recruiting domestic workers has led to such workers facing mistreatment and abuse, and in many reported instances, tension between the parties resulting in the house has led them to resort to criminality, including murder.
“The Nigeria Police Force frequently warns Nigerians against indiscriminate recruitment of domestic workers in a bid to cut down on the number of ugly incidents involving the workers and their employers.
“In the UK, you don’t just bring in anybody to serve as a domestic worker. In Nigeria, their fundamental rights are always abused,” he said.
Contributing to the debate, Senator Adams Oshiomhole stated that domestic workers suffers abuses like rape, harassment, and murder without these cases being reported to the authorities.
Senator Oshiomhole also observed that employers face the risk of becoming victims of criminal plots hatched by such house help.
“Some of us employ security guards that we don’t even know where they come from, and sometimes it doesn’t end well,” he stated.
The former labour leader raised the issue of appropriate remuneration for such workers, saying the practice of paying them slavery salaries should be regulated.
Lending his voice to the debate, the immediate past Minister of Labour, Employment and Productivity, Sen. Simon Lalong, described the bill as timely, recalling how a recent International Labour Organisation (ILO) forum held in Geneva focused on the right to a decent job and the right to participate in strikes by workers.
Senator Lalong narrated a story of how a domestic worker was well-treated by the employer and educated up to the university level, where he graduated with a first-class degree.
“We all need domestic workers, but we also neglect them. We feel that our children are better than them, which is part of the problem,” he said.
