UN Women continues to advocate for the rights of domestic workers

UN Women continues to raise awareness about the rights and challenges of domestic workers and to support efforts that shape public opinion and advance advocacy on such issues.

These were the goals of the information meetings that were held in September 2025 in cooperation with the Association of Nannies and Domestic Workers and the Labour Union of Domestic and Care Workers. The meetings were held with representatives of the media, the civil sector and trade unions. During the meetings, the participants received information about the activities of the Association of Nannies and Domestic Workers, as well as the Labour Union of Domestic and Care Workers, and reviewed the specific characteristics of domestic employment as informal work, the current rights situation of domestic workers and the role of the State in the recognition of domestic work. In addition, attention was focused on the results of the study ‘Invisible Hands: Formalization of Domestic Work in Georgia’ and its vision for policy change. The Association of Nannies and Domestic Workers plans to use this vision to guide its work on the issue of domestic work.

Local legislation in Georgia does not recognize the concept of domestic work, and the country has not ratified the International Labour Organization’s Domestic Workers Convention, 2011 (No. 189). Accordingly, domestic workers do not enjoy the same basic rights and benefits that local labour legislation provides to other employment categories. The vast majority of domestic workers in Georgia—96 per cent—are women. Given the current reality, special importance is attached to targeted communication with groups that work on labour rights and influence the formation of public opinion and policy change. Among them are journalists, for whom the issue of domestic workers’ rights is a relatively new topic.

“Domestic workers in informal employment often face the most difficult working conditions, such as unregulated working hours, low pay, legal insecurity and the lack of contracts,” said Teo Kavtaradze, a journalist at Studio Monitor, after the meeting. “Who is a domestic worker, what is their social profile, [and] what path does a person take to become involved in care work? We still know very little about these topics, because no one has researched them. Media interest in relevant issues will increase the visibility of people involved in care work and will make a significant contribution towards increasing their access to labour rights.”

Domestic workers began taking the first steps towards unification in 2020. By 2023, with the support of UN Women, the Association of Nannies and Domestic Workers was legally established to empower women employed in families and to protect their labour and social rights. In 2024, the association also established a Domestic Workers Employment Centre, and in June 2025, it founded the Labour Union of Domestic and Care Workers.

The cooperation between UN Women and the Association of Nannies and Domestic Workers is part of the UN Women project “Women’s Economic Empowerment in the South Caucasus”. The project is implemented with the financial support of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) and the Austrian Development Agency (ADA).