Legal consultancy

Since INSAN Association has long been working with vulnerable and marginalized communities in general, and migrant domestic workers in particular, we began a partnership with the Open Society Foundation in 2013, which seeks to increase the access of migrant domestic workers to justice. The project then focused on the issue of legal assistance and legal mediation for domestic workers who needed it. With the accumulation of experience, our approach to this subject has evolved, using the needs that have been considered a priority among the beneficiaries of these services themselves. What began as a project that was aimed at providing direct assistance has evolved and expanded to various areas that we find to be in urgent need of action and improvement.

One such area is the employment contract. In addition to the fact that the Lebanese labor law excludes migrant domestic workers (as well as agricultural workers) from its jurisdiction, the Standard Unified Contract gives them fragmented rights and does not provide them with the necessary protection. Accordingly, we are working on a new strategy that can be used to support our efforts to assist women migrant workers' access to justice. This endeavor seeks to explore and develop the idea of ​​contracts supplementing the Standard Unified Contract, which will enable workers, employers, embassies of countries of origin and recruitment agencies to sign and adhere to them to ensure equal rights and duties of both parties. This is achieved through the strategic use of contract laws in general, and supplementary contracts in particular, as well as the right to contract, which is guaranteed by Lebanese law, as innovative means of obtaining the human rights of migrant domestic workers.

Through this supplementary contract, we aim to improve the following:

1. Wages; terms and guarantee of pay

2. Termination of Contract: Equal right to both parties to terminate, notice period, termination terms of both parties: employer and employee

3. Living arrangements: the option to live with the employer and another option to live elsewhere chosen by the worker

4. Hours of work and rest periods, annual leave and holidays

5. Overtime