7 t h E u r o p e a n C o n f e r e n c e o n P e r s o n a l a n d H o u s e h o l d S e r v i c e s B r u s s e l s , 7 N o v e m b e r 2 0 1 6

C189 and Decent Work for Domestic Workers

Outline

PHS: A growing need and demand

Domestic work and PHS

Situation of domestic workers

C189 scope and objectives

Good working conditions for quality services

PHS: Projected Demand

Ageing populations and fewer multigenerational households

Continued rise in women’s economic participation,

Households prefer PHS: Lower costs

Greater independence

Potential of assisted-living technology

Limited public services developing countries and cuts in public expenditures

Source: Eurofound, 2013

1. +19.5 million from 1995-2010 2. 67 million in 2013 (new estimate)

Demand on the Rise

Coping with Demand

Understand the needs of households

Ensure a skilled workforce

Create sufficient formal jobs in the sector

Build the capacity of workers’ and employers’ organizations

Promote formalization

Domestic work is…

“work performed in or for a household or households”

Within an employment relationship

Art. 1, C189

Employer can be household, agency (public or private)

Tasks such as cleaning, cooking, ironing, caring for children, the elderly or the disabled…

Definitions vary according to country

Three employment models

Domestic Worker (Employee)

Private HH (Employer of DW)

Employment Contract

Domestic Worker (Employee)

Agency/ Enterprise Private or Public (Service Provider; Employer of DW)

Private HH (Service user/ buyer)

Service

Employment Contract

Commercial Contract

Private Agency (Service Provider; Employer of DW)

Domestic Worker (Employee)

Private HH (Service user/ buyer)

Agency: Deploys the DW, sets terms HH: Gives wage to Agency

Agency: Pays DW

DW works under HH direct control & supervision

Many are migrants

Distribution of migrant domestic workers, by broad subregion

IN EUROPE: 4,100,000 DWs

2,210,000 are migrants (54.6%)

19.2% of MDWs globally

Working Conditions Poor

Lowest pay

Longest hours

Weak labour and social protection

Difficulty to enforce

Low level of representation by organizations

Often workers from vulnerable groups

How high are DW’s wages?

Domestic workers are among the lowest paid world-wide.

Rarely higher than 50% of average wages.

Working hours of domestic workers

Domestic workers work extremely long hours

Worse for live-in domestic workers

In Chile:

Live-out average: 40h/week

Live-in average: 67.6h/week

In Peru: 49h/week versus 62h/week

Subject to on-call or stand-by

Important Protection Gaps Remain

Coverage of domestic workers by national legislation

Legal social security coverage

Effective Coverage Rates

PHS potential for employment…

- But under what conditions?

Poor working conditions = poor quality services

Long hours have high impact on health

long working hours, nocturnal work, and patterns of shift work that involve an irregular distribution of working hours are the factors that have the greatest negative effects on workers’ health” (Folkard and Tucker, 2012)

Low wages fail to motivate performance

No social security makes domestic workers vulnerable to take poor quality jobs

Ensuring Decent Work

ILO aim to make decent work a reality for domestic workers

Employment opportunities

Quality services to households

Decent working conditions

Legal protection

Social protection

Social dialogue

Collective bargaining

Formalization

ILO C189 and R201

Adopted on 16 June, 2011

Nearly unanimous

In recognition of the significant contribution of domestic workers to the global economy:

Increasing paid job opportunities for women and men workers with family responsibilities,

Greater scope for caring for ageing populations, children and persons with a disability, and

Substantial income transfers within and between countries

Recognition of poor working conditions

Key standards and approaches

• Measures for ensuring fair terms of employment and decent working conditions for domestic workers, on an equal footing with other workers

• Promoting formalization of the employment relationship (contracts, pay slips, time records, …)

• Developing of measures for ensuring compliance with laws and regulations protecting domestic workers

Care Work as Domestic Work

Domestic work, private face of care: Frequently informal Majority women Often marginalized Lacking effective labour/social

protections

Employers/recipients of in-home care are: Women workers with family

responsibilities Elderly Disabled

Employment relationship is: Informal, “familial” Vulnerable Sometimes triangular

Points to the need for: Analysis of their role in the

care economy

Identifying discrimination/penalties for in-home care

Promote organizing, social dialogue, CB, reflecting diverse employment relationships, shifting burden of negotiation to orgs

How public care policies can improve their protections (eg. MW, subsidies)

How the ILO Works

Ratification to date

As of November 2016, 23 ratifications registered.

LAC: 13

Europe: 7

Africa: 2

Asia: 1

Country Date ratified

Uruguay 14 Jun 2012

Philippines 05 Sep 2012

Mauritius 13 Sep 2012

Nicaragua 10 Jan 2013

Italy 22 Jan 2013

Bolivia 15 Apr 2013

Paraguay 07 May 2013

South Africa 20 Jun 2013

Guyana 09 Aug 2013

Germany 20 Sep 2013

Ecuador 18 Dec 2013

Costa Rica 20 Jan 2014

Argentina 24 March 2014

Colombia 9 May 2014

Ireland 28 Aug 2014

Switzerland 12 Nov 2014

Finland 8 Jan 2015

Dominican Republic 15 May 2015

Belgium 10 Jun 2015

Chile 10 Jun 2015

Panama 11 Jun 2016

Portugal 17 Jul 2015

Jamaica 12 Oct 2016

Law and Policy Reform

Over 70 countries have engaged in law and policy reform in the areas of:

Comprehensive (Brazil, Philippines)

Minimum wages (Zambia, Namibia, India, South Africa, Switzerland, USA, Costa Rica)

Working time (Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, Chile)

Social security (India, Argentina, Spain, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Costa Rica)

Compliance (Ireland, Uruguay, Argentina)

ILO builds capacity…

Guides on organizing strategies

Training workshops

Analysis of legal framework to identify barriers

Promoting social dialogue

Diagnosis of freedom of association and collective bargaining Brazil, Bolivia

Setting up tripartite plus technical working groups Philippines, Tanzania, Zambia

Barriers to Organizing

Practical barriers

Dispersion

Fear

Lack of awareness

Legal and administrative barriers

Definition of woker, employer, or workplace

Levels of bargaining

Thresholds for representation

Formalities

Workers’ and Employers’ Orgs

More and more domestic workers’ organizations

International Domestic Workers’ Federation represents 58 organizations and 500,000 workers

Still few employers’ organizations

Mostly in Europe, plus Uruguay, Argentina….

Work with trade union confederations and employers’ organizations through social dialogue

ITUC 12x12 campaign, tripartite technical working groups

Models for setting standards

Sectoral bargaining

Point of hire

Tripartite social dialogue

Sectoral Agreement Model

Italy, France, Belgium, Uruguay, Argentina, USA Legal recognition of domestic workers’ rights

Existence and legal recognition of DWs and EDWs’ organizations

Model: Domestic workers’ union and employers’ organization negotiate

standards;

Standards negotiated by representatives, not necessarily DWs or EDWs themselves;

CBA goes into force covering all or part of the sector;

Government institutions primarily responsible for promoting and ensuring compliance.

Example: Uruguay

The Story

SUTD formed in the 1950s

Liga de Amas de Casa, Consumidores y Usuarios formed in the 1950s

Government established a council to set standards

Invited LACCU to negotiate

Negotiated agreements since 2008, progressively expanding rights.

CB agreement is universally applicable

Example: Uruguay Findings

Results:

Overall improvement of perception of domestic workers

Improvement in working conditions

Increased social security registrations

Facilitating factors:

Recognition of rights and representation of workers and employers

Government convening of parties

Investment in labour inspections and awareness campaign

Building capacity of workers’ and employers’ organizations

Point of Hire Model

India (SEWA), Hong Kong Totally or partially excluded from labour/FoA/CB rights

Lack of an employer counterpart

Very low organizing capacity

Method

Workers decide on collective standards;

Standards promoted at point of hire and/or captured in standard contract;

Ensuring compliance lies de facto with the union

Example: Hong Kong

The Story Local domestic workers excluded from labour laws Full FoA: unionized, affiliated to FADWU, HKCTU No CB rights for any workers HKCTU used government funding for training center (CTUTC) After training, workers have access to job referral Standards set negotiated with union

Results Standard hourly wage double the statutory minimum CTUTC would only take jobs with a monthly salary of around

HK$18,000-$25,000 (double the average) No negative impact on employment Half graduates join the union

Example: Hong Kong

Facilitating factors:

Full right to freedom of association;

Government funded training program;

Cooperation between HKCTU and CTUTC

In-depth dialogue among workers

Source of confidence-building and empowerment of domestic workers about the value of their labour.

Tripartite social dialogue

Philippines, Tanzania, Zambia, South Africa…

Workers and employers are not necessarily represented

Will to improve conditions anyway

Method

Government convenes a tripartite body

Negotiate policy objectives and a road map for action

Example: Zambia

The Story: DWs recognized as workers Excluded from CB through threshhold provision Low unionization rate/capacity No employers’ organization Code of Conduct negotiated between unions, employers’

federation, and government CoC could not be turned into an agreement because

employers’ federation does not represent employers of domestic workers

CoC implemented through maid centers Maid centers help to monitor compliance

Outcomes

Policy that reflects needs of workers and employers

Relieve the burden of households

Relieve burden of negotiating terms and conditions

Full, decent employment for domestic workers

Improved monitoring and adjusting

Policy Resources

Effective Protections for Domestic Workers: A guide to designing

labour laws Domestic Workers Across the World Labour inspection and other compliance mechanisms in the

domestic work sector How to set a minimum wage for domestic workers Working time of live-in domestic workers Social protection for domestic workers: Key policy trends and

statistics Dispute resolution training module Policy Brief on Collective bargaining and other forms of negotiation Formalizing employment in domestic work (5 December, 2016)

See www.ilo.org/domesticworkers