Fair labour standards for domestic work

A major problem in forcing a recognition — officially and in popular perception — of domestic workers as workers, stems from the nature of their work. Spanning cooking and housework on the one end and caring responsibilities on the other, housework and caring has been described as ‘reproductive labour’ — the unpaid and uncompensated burden women in patriarchal households have shouldered often in addition to paid employment. We have historically seen campaigns at the international level that have demanded wages for housework, in an attempt to combat the devaluation of housework and thereby women’s contribution to the economy. The devaluation of the work performed by domestic workers and the refusal by most states and private actors to recognise this category as workers stems from the ideological classification of this work as non-productive/reproductive labour.

Statistical sources on the size of the domestic workforce in India vary in their estimates, ranging from 4.75 million (NSS 2005) to over 90 million. For several years now, the National Domestic Workers’ Movement in India, the largest membership-based organisation that works with different categories of domestic workers across 24 states in the country, has been campaigning for protection from abuse, wage regulation, fair and decent conditions of work and social security for domestic workers — migrant, live-in and other categories of this extremely vast, unregulated and unprotected workforce.

Networks like the National Domestic Workers Movement challenge the basis of the organisation of work and assumptions of productive and reproductive labour. There is a resistance from the state and from employers. Interestingly, established trade unions are not particularly interested in fighting for protection for domestic workers either, not only because they are an unorganised workforce, but also because in the hierarchy of work, domestic work is devalued by trade unions that are concentrated in the organised sector.

The Domestic Workers (Regulation of Employment, Conditions of Work, Social Security and Welfare) Bill, 2010, has been a subject of internal debate between the government and social movements working in this sector especially after the circulation by the ILO of the Brown Report on Decent Work for Domestic Workers, after the 99th session of the International Labour Conference, 2010, calling for state parties to hold consultations with stakeholders and provide comments on a proposed convention that will set fair labour standards for domestic work. The year 2011, it is expected, will see both international and domestic law on this important subject in place. It is therefore apt to outline the key concerns raised in the Brown report and anticipate some queries that might arise in the course of our domestic deliberations on this issue, in the hope that a national debate will strengthen the work of the domestic workers’ movement in India to secure full and comprehensive protection.

The fact that the work site for domestic work is often the home of the employer, not a public place, the concern for not derogating the right to privacy of employers is often posited as contradictory to the right of the worker to regulated employment. The employment of a domestic worker involves an opening of the private space of the home to a paid worker who is not part of the household. The Home Work Recommendation, 1996 (No. 184) builds on this by providing that “(i)n so far as it is compatible with national law and practice concerning respect for privacy… officials entrusted with enforcing provisions applicable to home work should be allowed to enter the parts of the home or other private premises in which the work is carried out.”

While the Brown report recognises the possibility of children under the age of 18 but above the minimum age of employment engaging in domestic work, this stands already regulated by law in India with the enactment of the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009, which makes it mandatory for all children between the ages of six and 14 to be at school. There is without doubt a large gap between the legal position and practice, but unarguably protection needs to be put in place for children between the ages of 14 and 18 who are in domestic work.

The rapid rise in crossborder trafficking calls for special protection for migrant domestic workers, often people at risk because they have crossed international borders without requisite documentation. The provision on migrant domestic workers however needs to address the important issue of reintegration and/or return after completion or termination of contract — a time when they are particularly at risk.

The draft bill attempts to mandate a registration of workers both in source and work areas, and complete documentation on employers and placement agencies; and limiting the work day to eight hours for part time and nine hours for live-in workers with adequate rest; overtime at twice the wages, but limited to an overall 10 hour work day with a provision for annual wage increases and most importantly specification on conditions of work — which include living facilities and food. While the will of the enforcing authority is critical to the guarantee of protection for domestic workers, the disciplining of employers and regulators alike can happen effectively only through the exercise of the right to freedom of association and the strengthening of collective bargaining by domestic workers through membership based associations and unions. Since this is a predominantly female workforce, unionisation will have a positive impact on the profile workers’ associations in the country and hopefully also the methods.

Finally, advocacy and rights groups have found that domestic workers are especially vulnerable to sexual harassment and sexual assault, and often find it impossible to access the criminal justice system. There must be an interlinking clause in both legislations that offer protection to domestic workers against sexual harassment.
Source:http://expressbuzz.com/opinion/op-ed/fair-labour-standards-for-domestic-work/244537.html