ON Friday May 31, 2013 a small contingent from Red Thread and one of our networks, Grassroots Women Across Race, handed over a petition with three thousand and sixty nine (3,069) signatures to the Minister of Labour at his office.

These signatures were collected during the months of April and May, 2013, in support of a call for CARICOM Governments to support domestic workers in their search for a better life, through the ratification of International Labour Organisation (ILO) Convention # 189.  This call is being made by the Caribbean Domestic Workers Network, on whose Steering Committee we sit.
At the handing over of the petition, Labour Minister Dr Nanda Gopaul said that he had seen our statements on this issue in two daily newspapers and assured us that the government has already decided to ratify the Convention.  He further said that his ministry is committed to working with us to ensure that the rights of domestic workers are protected.
We welcome the commitments of the Minister of Labour and look forward to a working relationship which will truly serve the interests of the many thousands of mainly women who work as part-time or full-time domestic workers in Guyana, often under very terrible conditions.