PQ leaves immigrant workers out to dry--again

According to the Association pour la defense des droits du personnel domestique (ADDPD), many of Quebec's domestic workers, most of whom are recent arrivals from other countries, live in conditions resembling indentured servitude: they are often subjected to humiliating and exploitative conditions by abusive employers. Those caring for the elderly or disabled don't benefit from minimum wages, time off, or even protection against unjust dismissal. >> And yet, when the PQ government recently tabled its changes to the Labour Standards Act, the only reference to domestic workers was that employers would not be allowed to charge live-ins room and board. >> For the ADDPD, this was a serious disappointment. "It's not small potatoes, it's no potatoes," said ADDPD director Denise Caron. "It doesn't respond to any of our seven demands." For more than two years, the ADDPD has been demanding, among other things, that live-ins be paid an hourly salary at the standard minimum wage, that they receive the standard workweek of 44 hours as opposed to the present 53, that caregivers receive the same legal protections as other workers, and that all domestics be covered by the CSST. >> When the ADDPD lobbied Labour Minister Marcel Rioux last spring, they were encouraged to believe that the new Labour Standards Act would improve domestics' legal status. In a television interview, Rioux stated that caregivers were living in "absolutely dramatic conditions" and that they should be given full legal status. >> The labour ministry is still studying the demands and could soon issue some regulations. But anything short of a complete legal statute is not enough, says the ADDPD's Isabelle Doré, because the government would be able to change a regulation more easily. >> With the support of women's and community groups, the ADDPD is now turning up the political heat by calling for an open public consultation on any proposed legal changes. --Wayne Hiltz