Abstract
ABSTRACT Objective: to understand the perceptions of domestic workers on the legislative changes and impacts on their working and health conditions. Method: a qualitative study, conducted in a city in the inland of São Paulo, between December 2016 and March 2017, conducted through individual interviews with 15 domestic workers, using the snowball strategy and theoretical saturation sampling. For data analysis, Hermeneutics-Dialectics was adopted. Results: domestic workers face precarious working and health conditions, permeated by a lack of information about their rights at work, as well as discrimination, devaluation, musculoskeletal problems, mental suffering and presenteeism. Improvements in recent years have been reported, but the workers claim greater reach for formal registration and valuation for domestic work. Conclusion: constant evaluation and dissemination of the legislative changes with the domestic workers is essential, so that chronic situations of devaluation and precariousness of domestic work are replaced by the empowerment and transformation capacity of these women.
Highlights
Housework stands out as a globally significant work activity and is one of the oldest and most frequent forms of employment for the female contingent
The domestic workers identify the occurrence of legislative changes that generate positive impacts on their working and health conditions; they emphasize the permanence of several historical forms of precarious domestic work, which need discussion with a view to improving the policies and rights aimed at this category
A significant part of the workers were unaware of their rights or had brief or superficial information about them, which indicates the need for greater dissemination of this theme, so that the right is exercised in the daily work of these women
Summary
Housework stands out as a globally significant work activity and is one of the oldest and most frequent forms of employment for the female contingent. According to the International Labor Organization (ILO), 52.6 million people work in the domestic service, 83% being women.[1] In addition, this activity represents 3.6% of the global wage employment.[1]. The permanence of precarious domestic work includes still undervalued work, seen as strictly manual, with low wages, intense work pace and work overload, exposure to occupational risks, strong hierarchical relationship and submission to the employers, as well as situations of prejudices and disrespects to human and fundamental rights at work.[3,4,5,6,7,8]
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