BEIRUT: Labor Minister Salim Jreissati Friday presented a draft law to the Cabinet to regulate private agencies that recruit domestic workers.

The key proposal of the draft law calls for reviving the National Employment Office, which would gradually take charge of managing relations between employers and domestic workers, with recruitment agencies playing a secondary role.

The draft includes legal protections for domestic workers, such as requiring a witness to sign contracts before workers arrive and guarding confidential documents.

Under the law, agencies would have to ensure employers open a bank account with a guarantee of six months’ worth of wages, to avoid the problem of nonpayment.

Last month, representatives from recruitment agencies complained they had not been consulted in devising the law and said it did not address unregistered agencies and employers who were largely responsible for mistreating workers.