On September 4, the caretaker minister of labour announced that the Lebanese government has approved a new standard unified contract for migrant domestic workers. According to the statement, the new contract abolishes the current Kafala system (Sponsorship). Under the Kafala system the employer sponsors the worker’s legal status in the country. Kafala system is seen as an abusive system prohibiting workers from resigning without the consent of their employers. It also allows employers to withhold their workers’ passports.

The new contract gives migrant domestic workers the right to the minimum wage of 675,000 Lebanese pounds ($450 before the crisis, less than $100 according to the black market rate). It also gives workers the right to keep their passports and to resign without the employers’ consent. The new contract also provides that workers should have good and healthy living and working conditions including a private and well-ventilated room, the right to daily rest, sick leave and paid holidays. However, the contract allows the deduction of an undefined amount of the salary to cover food, clothes, etc.

Activists and rights groups have welcomed the new contract. Yet, they see it as only a first step as it is still not clear how the new contract will be enforced and whether employers will be held to account for violating its provisions. They called on the parliament to amend the labour law to include all domestic workers, regardless of their nationality, in its protection.

Nearly 250,000 migrant domestic workers, mostly female from Africa and Asia, are excluded from the protections of the Lebanese labour law. Due the deteriorating economic situation in Lebanon, many of them have recently been abandoned by their employers to the streets without due pay and passports; no employer has been held to account. Beirut’s port explosion of 4th August has worsened the situation and many have lost their savings, homes, belongings and passports in the explosion.

On 14 October, The syndicate of the Owners of Recruitment Agencies filed a case before the state council to repeal the new contract. The State Council (Shura council), the top administrative court in Lebanon has decided to temporarily suspend the implementation of the contract on the basis that this contract causes severe damage to the recruitment agencies interests.