By Raphael Ekpang
Nigerian Senate on Wednesday passed for second reading, a Bill for an Act to provide for the documentation and protection of domestic workers and employers.
The bill sponsored by Senator Hussaini Babangida-Uba representing Jigawa North-West title, “A Bill for an Act to Provide for the Documentation and Protection of Domestic Workers and Employers and for Other Matters Connected Therewith, 2024” received widely commendation by the Senators present at the chambers.
Leading the debate on the floor of the red chambers, Senator Babangida said the bill if passed to law will serve several purposes, including keeping full records of the identities of domestic workers, respecting their fundamental human rights, and providing provisions for the safety of employers.
He also noted that the bill would safeguard the interests of both the domestic worker and the employer by addressing recurring abuses and tragedies, such as home workers killing their employers and disappearing with their valuables.
According to him, “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.
Supporting the debate, Sen. Adams Oshiomhole said that domestic workers suffered abuses like rape, harassment, and murder, adding that most cases went unreported.
On the other hand, Oshiomhole observed that employers too faced 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.
On his part, 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.
The President of the Senate, Godswill Akpabio, though the establishment of a commission to regulate the recruitment, documentation, and protection of the rights of domestic workers and their employers, but, recommended that a department in the Ministry of Labour and Employment be saddled with that responsibility.
The bill was referred to the Committee on Labour and Productivity.
