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CARE WORK SECURITY
By: International Labour
Office
World of Work, No. 39, June 2001
Looking after children, elderly or disabled relatives and perhaps those less fortunate than ourselves- care work is one of the most important types of work which most of us perform during our lives. Yet this work is often not counted in labour statistics and in neglected in the design of social protection policies. Given the isolated nature of their work, care workers tend to be less organized than other workers. Lack of representation often goes hand-in-hand with lack of income and work security. An ILO Workshop on “Care Work Security” held in Geneva on 29 to 30 March 2001, brought together academics, activists, unions and international organizations working on care, to examine representation and security problems of care workers in different parts of the world. Participants agreed that they systematic neglect of care workers’ problems during most of the twentieth century has recently begun to change but there is still along way to go in legitimizing care work as an important set of activities, including altering gender roles and changes in the economics and social functions of the family.
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