Trade unions and workers’ organisations are to work together to protect the rights of migrant health and care workers, ensuring that expanding labour migration opportunities translate into decent work.

The commitment emerged from a Trade Union Roundtable on Promoting Decent Work for Health and Care Workers organised by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) under its Migrant Care project.

The roundtable brought together trade unions and workers’ organisations, along with representatives of regional and international trade union federations, to discuss coordination between countries of origin and destination.

The workers’ organisations identified risks that can accompany migration, including misinformation, unethical recruitment, excessive recruitment costs, informal employment, difficulties in recognition of qualifications, discrimination and barriers to fundamental principles and rights at work.

The unions stressed that cross-border cooperation is essential because protection cannot stop at the point of departure.

They said migrant workers need reliable information when deciding whether to migrate, support before departure, representation and access to remedies while employed abroad, and continuity of rights and social protection when they return.

They called for no recruitment fees for migrant workers, transparent contracts, recognition of qualifications, freedom of association, portable and adequate social protection, and joint monitoring involving ILO constituents in origin and destination countries.

Vice President of Self-Employed Women’s Association (SEWA), Sonia George, noted that trade union collaboration is particularly important in the care economy, especially as demand for elderly, long-term, and home-based care rises and women make up a substantial share of care workers.

According to her, it emphasises workers’ choice and agency regarding the type and location of their employment.

She said it links the choices directly to workers’ physical and mental well-being and calls for decent wages, recognition of skills and experience, and decent working conditions at both origin and destination.

Noting that the resulting statement places trade unions at the centre of labour migration governance, she said it calls for developing, finalising, implementing, and monitoring bilateral labour migration agreements with the active participation of unions from both origin and destination countries.

“This approach would allow workers’ organisations to bring workplace experience into policy discussions, identify emerging problems, support grievance mechanisms and use social dialogue and collective action to strengthen accountability across the migration corridor,” she said.

At the international level, it envisages deeper cooperation with countries’ trade unions and stronger cross-border solidarity through networks including the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) and Public Services International (PSI), while working with the ILO and other partners.