More than 30 years after its establishment by diminutive poultry production line worker, the late Clotill Walcott, the National Union of Domestic Employees (Nude) is contending that the sector it represents continues to confront as many challenges as the hurdles it has been able to clear.
For example, Nude recently launched an international petition to draw attention to the fact that four years after international adoption of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) International Domestic Workers Convention (189) and the June launch of a Domestic Workers Register in T&T, comprehensive legislative protection of workers in the sector continues to be elusive.
"We have been fighting and trying to work with Government along the way," Nude general secretary Ida Le Blanc said.
"But up to now we don't have a law and proper arrangements for domestic workers to enjoy the CSME (Caricom Single Market and Economy)."
She pointed to the fact that a growing number of complaints reaching her office chronicle the abuse of domestic workers from countries such as Jamaica and Guyana. Jamaica has moved aggressively with the certification of domestic workers.
Caricom leaders had actually agreed back in 2006 to the addition of artisans and domestic workers to select categories of Caribbean workers to benefit from the right to live and work in the region without a work permit through the use of skilled nationals certification.
A campaign to promote public awareness of the move and to push countries in the direction of establishing a certification regime to enable the provision was launched two years ago.
Only weeks ago, the Caribbean Policy Development Centre (CPDC) teamed up with Nude to promote the programme in T&T.
However, though both the Minimum Wages (Household Assistant) Order and Maternity Protection Act include protection for domestic workers, the Industrial Relations Act (IRA) does not include such a category.
Labour Minister Errol Mc Leod said in his Labour Day message last year that campaigners for T&T to ratify the ILO Convention were "knocking on an open door."
A subsequent attempt to amend the IRA, meant to pave the way for eventual ratification, was however stopped in its tracks by Nude which contended that while the amendment recognised "domestic workers," its definition of "employer" meant that those who had fewer than three workers in this category would not be subject to the collective bargaining process as called for in the convention.
A slow-moving international online petition has been launched by Nude with such an agenda in mind.
Located at avaaz.org, a popular online campaign site, the petition calls on the Government to "ensure that domestic workers are brought...in line as all other workers."
It claims domestic workers have been suffering the effects of discrimination, "inequity before the law" and "a number of injustices."
The petition calls for the protection of domestic workers under the National Insurance Scheme and the Occupational Health and Safety Act.
Le Blanc admitted that considerable progress has been made since the launch of the union. She recalled the long campaign for recognition by the trade union movement and pointed to the fact that two Nude officers were now on the executive of the National Trade Union Centre (Natuc).
Le Blanc believes there is much more work to be done before such an objective is achieved. She said whoever takes office on September 8 will find her organisation, on behalf of its 600 registered members and thousands of domestic workers, at their doorstep.
For now, the organisation is aiming at 250 endorsements for its online campaign.