Ireland's ratification of the ILO Convention No. 189 on Decent Work for Domestic Workers (the Domestic Workers Convention) in 2014 did not require any changes to our domestic legislation, as the existing body of employment rights legislation was fully compliant with the Convention. Therefore, ratification did not change anything in existing employment legislation or its interpretation. However, ratification presented an opportunity to raise awareness of the rights of domestic workers, and, to this end, the then National Employment Rights Authority (NERA) - which has since become part of the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) - published a booklet on the employment rights of domestic workers in Ireland to coincide with ratification. The Migrant Rights Centre of Ireland (MRCI) also used the opportunity to raise awareness of domestic workers' rights.
A “domestic worker” is defined in the Domestic Workers Convention as “any person engaged in domestic work within an employment relationship”. Domestic work may involve a range of tasks, including cooking, cleaning a house, washing and ironing laundry, general housework, looking after children, the elderly or persons with disabilities, and maintaining gardens.
There is no legal definition of the term “au pair” in Irish legislation, and individuals described as “au pairs”, “nannies” or “child-minders” are not exempted or treated as separate categories of workers under Irish employment law. Ireland’s body of employment rights legislation protects all employees who are legally employed on an employer-employee basis, regardless of what title is given to them. Therefore, once it is clear that a person is working under a contract of employment, on a full-time or part-time basis, that person has the same protection under employment law as other employees. For example, the National Minimum Wage Act 2000 requires that any persons working under a contract of employment be paid the statutory National Minimum Wage. For the purposes of this Act, this means a contract of service or apprenticeship, or any other contract whereby an individual agrees with another person to do or perform personally any work or service for that person.
Where the WRC receive a complaint involving somebody described as an au pair, they will investigate with a view to establishing whether a person has statutory entitlements under employment law. The question as to whether a person is an employee or not is generally established by reference to the provisions of existing employment legislation and established contract law, regardless of any title or designation given to the individual. Complaints involving "au pairs" are considered on a case-by-case basis, in the light of the facts of each case.
