Making decent work a reality for domestic workers

Domestic workers often work very long hours for low pay. To overcome legal coverage gaps, insufficient protection and lack of compliance, it is vital that wages and hours be set coherently. Minimum wages should take into account working hours, capacity of households to pay, and the needs of workers and their families. Implementation measures have included awareness-raising campaigns, and the use of records such as timesheets, payslips and standard contracts. In an increasing number of cases, social dialogue is making the difference.

• In Argentina, a national tripartite negotiating body for defining wage levels and working conditions has ensured that the minimum wage for domestic workers meets the needs of workers and employers, and reflects realities in various regions in the country.
• In Brazil, a collective agreement in São Paulo fixes wages above the minimum set at national level, provides for a daily and monthly minimum wage to ensure the adequate coverage of domestic workers working in both arrangements, and includes a wage scale for live-in domestic workers and measures to limit working time.
• In the United States, live-in domestic workers record their hours and wages and submit them to their employer, who is responsible for keeping such records. Periods of rest during meals, at night and off-duty must be specified and when rest periods are interrupted, they must be counted as working time.
• In Zambia, service providers use a Code of Conduct to set contractual terms at the point of hire, often negotiating salaries above the minimum wage, and helping to enforce the contracts.

To ensure that all domestic workers enjoy access to social protection equal to other employees, countries have provided them with coverage under the existing social insurance mechanism, at times making certain adaptations, to allow for registration of domestic workers with multiple employers and for State subsidization. In parallel, States must strengthen non-contributory schemes so domestic workers and their families lacking access are able to enjoy a basic level of protection.

• Mexico developed an electronic registration system to facilitate registration and payment of contributions.
• In Uruguay, a mobile app handles registration and contribution payments for employers of domestic workers. In tandem with awareness-raising activities and a dissemination campaign, such measures helped reduce contribution evasion from 60% in 2006 to 24% in 2017.
• In Belgium and France, service voucher systems have facilitated registration for domestic workers with multiple employers and also acted as a vehicle for the payment of wages and contributions, and for State subsidization.
• To account for the lower contributory capacity of domestic workers and their employers, Costa Rica and other countries have partially subsidized social security contributions for both parties.
• In South Africa, domestic workers are included in the Unemployment Insurance Fund, which provides unemployment and maternity benefits. Implementation was accompanied by resources to train and employ additional labour inspectors.

Violence and harassment against domestic workers must become legally and socially unacceptable. Domestic workers must be covered not only by labour, social security and OSH laws, but also by equality and non-discrimination laws.

• In Finland, under the Employment Contracts Act, the Occupational Health Care Act and the Occupational Safety and Health Act, domestic workers receive the same protections as other workers, enjoying wide legal coverage and a variety of complaint procedures.
• In Costa Rica, the same system governing safety and health of workers applies to domestic workers. It is supplemented by special insurance instruments created for domestic workers.
• In Ghana, the Domestic Violence Act prohibits all forms of violence and harassment in household environments. Domestic workers are included in the definition of domestic relationship and thus protected by the Act.
• In Uruguay, domestic workers and employers can receive free comprehensive legal assistance thanks to collaboration between a domestic workers’ union, an employer association, the government social security office and the university.
• To ensure that all domestic workers have access to social insurance, South Africa voted to make it unconstitutional to exclude domestic workers employed in private households from the scope of the Compensation for Occupational Injuries and Diseases Act.
• Argentina developed a guide for women workers in private households that offers information on prevention and available hotlines for reporting gender-based violence.
• In Zambia and Singapore, code of conducts and guides for employers explicitly condemn violence and harassment against domestic workers as well as provide for punitive measures in case of misconduct.

A necessary first measure is to include domestic workers within the scope of occupational safety and health laws, either through specific or general regulation. Domestic workers’ organizations, and organizations of employers of domestic workers, have played a key role where they exist.

• In Spain, employers of domestic workers are obliged to ensure that the work of the household employee is performed in healthy and safe conditions.
• In Portugal, employers must ensure that the place of work, tools, products and processes do not present a risk to workers’ health.
• In Italy, organizations have set up a bipartite healthcare fund to ensure sufficient healthcare coverage for domestic workers. This fund provided for hospital stays and quarantine periods for domestic workers infected with the COVID-19 virus.
• In Belgium, social partners in the service voucher system (Joint Committee 322.01) concluded agreements that aim to ensure domestic workers, through trade union and service-voucher enterprises, have the necessary information on OSH prevention and protection measures.
• In Tanzania, an agreement between the domestic workers’ union and an employment agency asks employers to sign a contract authorizing the union to visit workplaces and review working conditions, including relating to OSH.
• In Mexico, to build capacity of household employers and inform domestic workers of possible risks, the Secretary of Labour and Employment Promotion of Mexico City (STYFE) developed a Protocol on OSH for employers and domestic workers.
• Argentina collects survey data on the nature and incidence of OSH risks in domestic work, with the aim of designing better policies.

Without formal employment, access to decent work remains elusive. Formalization can reduce poverty and provide a path to better equality in society. Formalizing domestic work entails extending legal coverage, providing adequate protection and ensuring effective compliance, using a combination of enabling and punitive approaches.

• Uruguay has extended legal coverage to domestic workers by allowing workers who work part-time or have multiple employers to enrol with the Social Protection Bank (BPS). Registration rates have increased by 7%.
• In France, a combination of tax benefits and direct subsidies for household employers, combined with exemptions from social contributions for domestic workers, contributed to a 30-point decline in undeclared work between 1996 and 2015.
• In Mexico, the Social Security Institute (IMSS) established: (a) that registration of domestic workers to social security was obligatory; (b) that registration and payment was the exclusive responsibility of the employer; and (c) that domestic workers should have a single account for multiple employers to make their contributions to, without having to coordinate amongst themselves.
• In Italy, DOMINA, an organization of households as employers of domestic workers, helps household employers to fulfill their legal obligations through advisory services to regularize and formalize the employment relationship.
• In Kenya and South Africa, household inspection visits complement other methods such as spot checks to identify undeclared or underdeclared domestic workers.
• In Tanzania, labour inspectors and other key staff of the Ministry of Labour and the Ministry of State President Office Labour and Public Service (MSPOLPS) received an ILO training course to improve labour inspection and dispute resolution in the domestic work sector.
• Argentina established a special Labour Court for Private Household Labour to resolve conflicts between domestic workers and household employers.
• In the Philippines, Portugal, South Africa and Zimbabwe, employers must provide domestic workers with detailed payslips.

Collective organization of domestic workers and employers of domestic workers is vital to achieving decent work in the sector. Domestic workers’ organizations face stiff challenges to effectively represent their membership, yet they exist in at least 64 countries around the world. The International Domestic Workers Federation (IDWF) represents half a million domestic workers through 79 affiliate organizations. In some countries, there are also organizations of employers of domestic workers, which allow for collective bargaining to take place.

• In France and Italy, organizations of employers of domestic workers have existed for many years.
• In 2015, the Association of Employers of Domestic Workers in Zambia (AEDWZ) was founded to further social dialogue, disseminate information on domestic workers and their employers’ rights and obligations, and support dispute settlements.
• A collective agreement in Italy sets out work and employment conditions for domestic workers and outlines services including recruitment, contracts, settlement of labour disputes, and legal and  tax compliance.
• In Brazil, a first collective agreement was signed in 2017 between the Domestic Workers Union of the Municipality of São Paulo (STDMSP) and the Union of Domestic Employers of the State of São Paulo (SEDESP), and recently renewed in 2021.