ILD 2025: Domestic Workers Voicing Their Demands for Legal Rights

In connection with International Labour Day, a public seminar was held on April 29, 2025, in Faisalabad to emphasize labor rights, dignity, and workplace safety for domestic workers. A large number of women domestic workers attended the event and raised their concerns about the lack of social protection and legal rights.

Leaders from domestic workers’ unions, including Shabana Parvez Bhatti (Lyallpur Domestic Workers Union), Zarina Irshad (Parkash Domestic Workers Union), Nagina Bibi (Sitara Domestic Workers Union, Toba Tek Singh), Parveen Akhtar, Naziran Bibi, Amina Afzal, and prominent labor activist Baba Latif Ansari, shared their experiences and demands.

Speakers called on the Punjab government to register all domestic workers with PESSI and EOBI, issue social security cards, and enforce the minimum wage notification, stressing the need to legally recognize domestic work as dignified labor.

Government representatives and political figures present at the seminar included Shakeel Rafiq (Assistant Director, Social Security – East), Imran Ghous (Deputy Director Labour – West, Faisalabad), Waheed Khaliq Rana (Executive Member, Faisalabad Chamber of Commerce), Shabana Razzaq (Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf), and Rehana Shahid (Pakistan Muslim League, Labour Wing).

Following the seminar, a rally was organized, where women domestic workers marched to demand dignity, fair wages, social security, and full implementation of the Punjab Domestic Workers Act, 2019.