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Working time laws in their policy environments
. Finally, it is suggested that 
regulatory models on working time should be developed in a manner attentive to the range 
of policy contexts that shape and support them. These policy frameworks include, most 
obviously, those on domestic work and social development, but may also include national 
policies on treatment of immigrants, state funding for child care and aged care, and so on. 
Although it is not addressed in detail in this report, it is in line with the unity principle 
outlined above that working time policies in the field of domestic work should be designed 
to complement general national regulatory measures on working time (Anxo et al., 2004). 
This insight also applies to related policy arenas, to capture in particular the relationship 
between low wages and long hours and between work/family policies and the demand for 
domestic work (Cancedda, 2001). 
5
Similar models have been adopted in a number of industrialized countries, including under the 
UK National Minimum Wage legislation (e.g. Low Pay Commission, 2010). 

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Conditions of Work and Employment Series No. 27 
19 
5. International standards: An evolution 
This section examines the historical evolution of the ILO‘s working time instruments 
and of the broader corpus of international labour standards. The aim is to consider the 
implications of these standards for the regulation of working time in domestic work and 
reflect on the role international standards on domestic work might play as part of this 
trajectory. A number of patterns emerge from this consideration: in summary, that the ILO 
has gradually extended coverage of its standards with respect to their sectoral and 
occupational scope and application to non-standard and precarious work. It is argued that 
these regulatory trends suggest that the international regulation of working hours in 
domestic work is a viable next stage in this evolution, and that existing international 
standards harbour techniques that can usefully be put to this end.