Abstract
This research examines legal protection for domestic workers, who are highly exposed to varieties of abuses and violence by taking the comparative analysis of some African countries like Kenya and South Africa. The best experience of these countries was selected as they extended labour law protection for domestic workers too. The International Labour Organization (ILO) has adopted the convention for special legal protection of domestic workers. Some countries of the world also signed and ratified the convention. However, Ethiopia was also signed but not yet ratified the convention and explicitly excluded domestic workers from labour law protection. The main objective of the research is to assess the legal protection of domestic workers in the study area. This research has employed doctrinal legal research and some empirical considerations were analyzed qualitatively through narration and thematic analysis techniques to articulate legal protection of domestic workers. The finding of the research indicated that there is no clear contractual agreement between employers and domestic workers, unlimited work time without rest including night time, work with less or no remuneration, abuses and sexual violations. The research also revealed that there is violation of rights of the domestic workers due to multiple factors but the legal protection is inadequate. Some of those factors include bargaining power imbalance, lack of clearly agreed terms of contract, illiteracy and working in private household, lack of awareness and weak realization of laws and failures of the organs of government. So, the research suggests that domestic workers need recognition and adequate legal protection due to their special vulnerability.
Highlights
Domestic workers are one of the most vulnerable groups in the world, being often the targets of physical and sexual abuse and experiencing discrimination and marginalization with regard to pay, working conditions and legal rights (Mulugeta, 2012)
According to the FDRE Constitution of Ethiopia, which is the supreme law of the land, workers have the right to reasonable limitation of working hours, to rest, to leisure, to periodic leaves with pay, to remuneration for public holidays as well as healthy and safe work environment (FDRE Constitution Article 42(2), 1995)
Domestic workers are governed by Labour Relations Act (LRA) and Basic Conditions of Employment Act (BCEA) which fills in the gaps of the LRA by creating a floor of employment rights (Tanzer, 2013)
Summary
Domestic workers are one of the most vulnerable groups in the world, being often the targets of physical and sexual abuse and experiencing discrimination and marginalization with regard to pay, working conditions and legal rights (Mulugeta, 2012). Domestic workers need legal protection just as any other wage earner and enjoy fundamental rights (International Trade Union Confederation, 2010). Some countries of the world have provided separate laws or chapters in the labour laws and still some others have ratified the ILO Convention to protect the rights of domestic workers. In Ethiopia, domestic workers are excluded from labour rights protection leaving them no legal rights to limits on their hours of work, a minimum wage, or adequate rest and overtime payment and etc. Some of the limitations of the research include scarcity of related literatures and financial constraints which affected in depth analysis of the research
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
