One of the victories of the trade union movement during the post- apartheid era has been the securing of legislated minimum wages for dometic workers. Historically,domestic workers have been at the lowest level of the labour market and subject to severe abuse and exploitation by many employers.However,due to the difficulties in organising themselves and enforcing labour laws for domestic workers,many of them are still not seeing the benefits of improved labour laws. Very importantly it is worth noting that most,if not all domestic workers are women and improving their lot will have a major positive impact on South African society.Recently domestic workers also secured a victory at the International Labour Organisation,the ILO that ratified a convention recognising domestic workers and their labour rights.
