A domestic worker is one who works in or for another person’s home. For a person to qualify as a domestic worker, he/she must be engaged in domestic work within an employment relationship. The term “employment relationship” excludes those persons from domestic work who;

1. Perform their work only occasionally or sporadically (such as part-time babysitters)
2. Perform the domestic work as a family responsibility (child care, elder care, etc.)

However, workers employed for the cleaning of public and private buildings and any other above-mentioned activities are not domestic workers as domestic work is a household work and is usually performed within the boundaries of a house.

In Uganda, these are the people who work in gardens (gardener), an individual who looks after children or works as an (indoor) maid or houseboy.

The new convention requires the provision of basic/fundamental rights to domestic workers on par with all other workers. Moreover, it requires that:

1. Domestic workers are informed of their conditions of employment in an understandable manner through a written contract;
2. Domestic workers are made to work only normal hours of work (for example, 48 hours a week in Pakistan and India) and other provisions like overtime compensation, periods of daily and weekly rest and annual paid leave are complied with;
3. Minimum age and minimum wage regulations (as are the norm in a country) are complied with;
4. Wages are to be paid in cash, however, only a limited portion of wages may be in kind.

For migrant domestic workers, the convention requires that a written contract must be signed and handed over to a worker before he/she crosses the national boundary. However, this provision is not applicable when people enjoy the freedom of movement through some bilateral or multilateral agreements. This provision is not applicable in the case of EU as well.

The Employment Act 2006 states that there is no permit requirement for one to recruit a domestic servant for employment. However, beyond this, there is no other specific provision in the constitution of Uganda or the labour laws regarding domestic workers in Uganda.