34. Agencies engaged in the movement of migrant domestic workers, whether in countries of origin, transit or employment, must be subject to authorization, approval and supervision by public authorities. This may take the form of formal, regular, transparent and Stateregulated: (a) Licensing, possibly involving processes of accreditation and periodic renewal; (b) Monitoring, inspection and evaluation; (c) Sanctions and penalties; (d) Systems of recording and reporting, including web-based formats that are widely and easily accessible to the public, with particular attention to instances of complaints and conflicts involving workers. 35. States parties should establish specific criteria relating to migrant domestic workers’ rights and ensure that only those agencies observing these criteria and codes can continue to operate. Such criteria could usefully be established in consultations with migrant workers’ organizations themselves, non-governmental organizations working with migrant workers and with workers’ and employers’ organizations. 36. Additionally, States parties are encouraged to adopt codes of conduct on the recruitment of migrant domestic workers, including specific rules governing fees and salary deductions, and to provide for appropriate penalties and sanctions to enforce them. States parties should ban recruitment fees charged to domestic workers, including through salary deductions. Conditions of work 37. The rights of migrant domestic workers should be dealt with within the larger framework of decent work for domestic workers. In this regard, the Committee considers that domestic work should be properly regulated by national legislation to ensure that domestic workers enjoy the same level of protection as other workers.8 38. Accordingly, labour protections in national law should be extended to domestic workers to ensure equal protection under the law, including provisions related to minimum wages, hours of work, days of rest, freedom of association, social security protection, including with respect to maternity, pension rights and health insurance, as well as additional provisions specific to the circumstances of domestic work. In this regard, migrant domestic workers should enjoy treatment not less favourable than that which applies to nationals of the State of employment (article 25). 39. States should protect the right of migrant domestic workers to freedom of movement and residence, including by ensuring that migrant domestic workers are not required to live with their employers or stay in the house during their time off (article 39). States should also ensure that migrant domestic workers retain possession of travel and identity documents (article 21). In addition, States should take all necessary measures to promote a shift in public perceptions so that domestic work becomes widely recognized as work and domestic workers as workers with fundamental rights, including labour rights. 40. States parties are encouraged to ensure that migrant domestic workers have explicit, written terms of employment, in a language they can understand, outlining their specific duties, hours, remuneration, days of rest, and other conditions of work, in contracts that are free, fair and fully consented to. In particular, States parties may wish to consider developing model or standard provisions for these purposes. 41. States parties should include provisions for monitoring mechanisms of the working conditions of migrant domestic workers in national legislation and strengthen labour 8 This recommendation is in line with Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights general comment No. 18 (2005) on the right to work, para. 10. 53