Domestic Service Workers Research Articles

The right of foreign female domestic workers to dignified treatment

Abstract This study is an effort to clarify and define the content of the foreign female domestic worker's right to be treated with dignity. This topic is of special importance, as there are a significant number of foreign female domestic workers who are working in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. However, there is no special legal regulation for domestic service workers, particularly for foreign workers, to guarantee their rights including the right to be treated with dignity. From this point of view, the study attempted to identify legal vacuums, simultaneously address them by relying on the analytical comparative approach. Therefore, to dive deeper into the subject, our study was divided into two sections; the first section focused on the concept of the right of the foreign female domestic worker to be treated with dignity, while the second section is entitled the content of the right to be treated with dignity. At the end of the study, a bunch of critical results and recommendations were presented. Keywords: foreign female domestic worker, treatment with dignity, dignity in the workplace, private life, legal personality.

Nice work if you can get it: Labour market pathways of Belgian service voucher workers

Seen as an alternative to precarious, informal work or no job at all, several European countries have started to use tax money to boost the demand for domestic services. This article asks whether this makes sense. We consider the case of the heavily subsidized and highly popular service voucher scheme in Belgium. Close to a quarter of households there employ domestic service workers under the scheme, making it in relative terms the largest scheme of its kind in Europe. The workers employed under the scheme enjoy extensive labour and social security rights. Does the service voucher scheme provide a model to be followed if we care about labour market exclusion and precariousness or is this a case of institutionalized second-tier work? To that end we trace workers’ labour market pathways over a considerable length of time. We find that a substantial share of women find a way out of vulnerable labour market situations through the scheme. However, a very significant number enter from steady employment. This is clearly at odds with the original objective of offering a stepping stone to women with a precarious labour market position. The scheme also plays an ambivalent role in the labour market integration process of immigrant newcomers. At least in part, the Belgian scheme can be seen as a case of policy overshooting. We suggest some potential improvements.

“Costuma fornecer a diversas pessoas drogas abortivas”: o ofício das parteiras, disputas profissionais e sociabilidades femininas (Porto Alegre, RS, Primeira República)

O artigo versa sobre o ofício das parteiras, sua importância social, as disputas por clientela e as sociabilidades femininas que giravam em torno deste exercício profissional. A parteira era uma presença limite entre a vida e a morte, entre um bom parto e um desfecho indesejado. Era ela que trazia a criança ao mundo, cortava o cordão umbilical, cuidava da mulher que acabara de parir, limpava o recém-nascido, providenciava (às vezes, no próprio pátio da casa dos pais) o enterro do natimorto, batizava os nascidos in periculo mortis, amadrinhava os sobreviventes. A análise dessa trabalhadora da saúde usa documentos judiciários como observatórios sociais e através deles maneja o cruzamento com outras fontes, procurando as experiências sociais das agentes ali presentes, tanto no exercício do ofício como recebendo atendimentos diversos. Parte das mulheres que aparecem neste artigo, se consultando ou usando efetivamente os serviços das parteiras, são trabalhadoras do serviço doméstico, assim, também versaremos sobre questões desse universo laboral. O lócus de nossa pesquisa é a cidade de Porto Alegre, capital do estado do Rio Grande do Sul, na parte mais meridional do Brasil.

Trabajadoras del hogar: grupo vulnerable al maltrato y desigualdad laboral

This work was originated by the “evaluation and intervention on psychosocial risks factors project” and has two objectives; the first is to establish the conditions of employment of women workers in domestic service in Mexico and her perceptions with respect to treatment from her employers, and the second is estimating the probability that the domestic employee perceives a good treatment by their employers, according to each of the variables that compose the study models. The information was taken from a secondary source from the National Survey of Discrimination in Mexico (ENADIS, 2010), applied to domestic service workers. The sample was 404 women domestic workers in the Mexican Republic. It was found that a high percentage of domestic workers don’t have employment benefits, and the 23.7% of the sample consider that they are not treated with respect, at least occasionally. The only variable for the contractual characteristics of work associated with dealing with respect was the bonus, while for the characteristics of the treatment; the associated variables were using the phone and permission to leave.It is concluded that the gender inequality and discrimination against women workers in Mexico is still a latent problem, especially present in the domestic workers, where nullity of legal protection generate discrimination and ill treatment. However, often they are not aware of this situation. On the other hand, the perception regarding dealing with respect they receive from their employers is not associated directly contractual characteristics of work, but with the perceived degree of freedom to respond to personal situations during their workday.

Household survey evidence on domestic workers in Ethiopia

ABSTRACTWhilst much scholarly attention of this nascent field of domestic service work focuses on protecting the rights and security of foreign/migrant domestic workers, the nature of domestic service work undertaken within national borders has escaped the attention of both researchers and public policy makers. Outlining the findings from a large household survey data in Ethiopia collected from seven major urban areas covering the period from 1994 to 2004, this paper departs from the usual focus on rights-based perspective and foreign migrant domestic service workers. Instead, the paper attempts to contribute to our understanding of the profile of domestic service providers, the significant drivers of participation in the provision of domestic services and the welfare of unpaid and paid domestic service workers in Ethiopia. In doing so, the paper contributes to the development of a greater evidence base, relevant for both researchers and public policy practitioners alike.

“Of and beyond medical consequences”: Exploring health information scanning and seeking behaviors of Filipino domestic service workers in Hong Kong

ABSTRACTThe increasing trend for women in developing countries to engage in international and temporary labor migration has exposed female migrant workers to health inequities. In this article, we problematize the impact of international and temporary labor migration on the health of Filipino domestic workers in Hong Kong by exploring their general patterns of health information acquisition. Through a series of focus group discussions with Filipino domestic workers in Hong Kong, we found that employers serve as stakeholders in migration health, social networking sites can be a platform for participatory health promotion, and religious beliefs and behaviors can promote favorable health behaviors.

A Matter of Decency? Persistent Tensions in the Regulation of Domestic Service

The role of law in regulating and mediating social inequality has been the subject of longstanding debates. While recent research on domestic service acknowledges the importance of regulation, the legal configuration of this activity sector is seldom assessed in a detailed or critical manner. This article builds on the claim that systematic observation should be dedicated to developments in the regulation of domestic service both in the local and international contexts.. The first part of the article focuses on the advancement of law regarding domestic service in Portugal. The Domestic Workers Convention adopted by the International Labor Organization in 2011 provides a context for examining persistent constraints on change toward social recognition and equity. Difference between domestic service workers and standard wage earners is analyzed in depth, and nine unsolved practicalities of domestic service regulation in Portugal are examined in light of the recent international convention. Gender and ethnicity are identified as lingering political foundations of this employment sector. The minimal participation of domestic workers and their representatives in regulatory processes raises serious concern. The historical lens is used to clarify current particularities in the regulation of the sector.

Non-Professional Healthcare Workers and Ethical Obligations to Work during Pandemic Influenza

Most academic papers on ethics in pandemics concentrate on the duties of healthcare professionals. This paper will consider non-professional healthcare workers: do they have a moral obligation to work during an influenza pandemic? If so, is this an obligation that outweighs others they might have, e.g., as parents, and should such an obligation be backed up by the coercive power of law? This paper considers whether non-professional healthcare workers—porters, domestic service workers, catering staff, clerks, IT support workers, etc.—have an obligation to work during an influenza pandemic. It uses data collected as part of a study looking at the attitudes of healthcare workers to working during a pandemic to suggest the philosophical arguments explored. These include: being in a position to do good, the ethics of work, competing obligations to family members and in particular to children and the obligations of citizens in a state of national emergency. We also look at whether compulsory measures are justified to support a national health service during a health emergency. We conclude that even if they are, compulsion should not be restricted to non-professionals who happen to be working in the health service at the time. Rather, compulsion involving a larger pool of people with the relevant skills and abilities is more equitable.

New Facets of Urban Segregation in Southern Europe

This article explores how primary features of occupational restructuring, such as the feminization of employment and migration, and changes in patterns of residential mobility of Greek and migrant women since the 1990s have contributed to shaping new forms of sociospatial segregation in Athens. We examine changes in the occupational structure and in segregation indices from 1991 to 2001. Findings suggest that new gender and ethnic divisions in the occupational structure combine with residential mobility and introduce strong tendencies towards spatial fragmentation. Intra-urban and migratory flows reflect diversified occupational trajectories among women and contribute to shaping the socioeconomic profile of the destination areas: (a) migrant domestic and unskilled service workers locate to central city and suburban areas; (b) Greek managers and professionals, move to ‘upper-class suburbs’; (c) small Greek entrepreneurs and independent workers sprawl to peri-urban areas; (d) salespersons and clerks move to inner suburban areas.

The Household Employees Union in Rio: A vantage point for observing changes in domestic service workers’ employment in Brazil

Abstract Studying the policies implemented by the Household Employees Union in Rio de Janeiro shows that when new social rights are extended to domestic service workers, it gives them a new sense of justice, leading to a growing number of lawsuits against employers. However, given the role it is made to play in the Brazilian legal system, the Union's position is ambivalent. Light is shed on the strained relationships between the various categories of people who come to its offices – tensions that tell us much about social relations generally. Attention is then turned to this small Union's role in the courts: after cases are heard, household employees often come away feeling their rights have been fairly upheld.

Women and labour rights in China

Domestic service workers in China, 96% of whom are females, have few labour rights due to the lack of appropriate laws. A survey of domestic service workers and companies in 2006-2007 found a predominance of low wages, long working hours, lack of training, and limited vacation days. The domestic service industry in China is characterised by a lack of government oversight, legal contracts, insurance coverage, and access to dispute resolution. This perpetuates gender disparities in the labour market and reduces the contribution of this industry to economic growth. This article analyses the need for legislation to protect the rights of domestic workers from the perspective of the labourers, the interests of employers and service companies, and gender equality. Legal protection for domestic service workers in China could be modelled on the labour laws of the Philippines and Hong Kong.

Mill Girls and Strangers: Single Women's Independent Migration in England, Scotland, and the United States, 1850–1881. By Wendy M. Gordon. (Albany: State University of New York Press, 2002. x, 234 pp. Cloth, $68.50, isbn 0-7914-5525-4. Paper, $22.95, isbn 0-7914-5526-2.)

Wendy M. Gordon compares the rural/urban migration of young, single, “independent” (self-supporting) workingwomen in three textile manufacturing communities to understand the commonalities and differences among those experiences. Her analysis centers on domestic servants in Preston, Lancashire, on textile operatives in Lowell, Massachusetts, and on domestic service and bleachery workers in Paisley, Scotland. Utilizing quantitative sources (largely census samples) and qualitative when possible, she argues that those migrants represented an important if declining contingent in the work forces of late-nineteenth-century industrial cities. Gordon demonstrates considerable imagination in teasing out patterns in the census data. She also contends that “if the patterns the statistics show are similar then qualitative sources from one city may help to explain behavior evident in all three” (p. 91). Thus by inference the Emma Page letters by a Lowell operative from Maine can, if used with care, suggest why Lancashire domestic servants and Scottish workingwomen decided to migrate. Understanding the personal reasons for migration probes the crucial transition from childhood to adult womanhood.

The Labour Relations of New Zealand's Health Reforms

This paper examines factors contributing to the environment within which reform of New Zealnnd's public health care and its industrial relations system occurred. These include radical state sector; health and labour law reforms that marketised the health sector, decentralised bargaining, the ending of compulsory union membership and the elimination of the requirement that employers bargain 'in good faith'. The paper examines the implementation of these changes and their impact on various unions. Domestic service workers have fared poorly, while medical specialists have benefited from the reforms. The impact on nursing and support staff unions has varied according to regional and market pressures for different occupations. Various union strategies and structures are examined. The paper concludes that reform has ended the exceptionalism of labour relations in New Zealand.

The economic, demographic, sociocultural and political setting for emigration from Sri Lanka.

This study of emigration from Sri Lanka is introduced by a brief review of the situation during the colonial period and an overview of recent migration experience. The second section of the paper deals with data collection and sources for labor migration, political migration, and estimates of total net migration. The third section looks at economic and demographic trends in terms of the growth of the economy, population growth and social well-being, the growth of the labor force, unemployment, the structure of the work force, internal migration and access to agricultural lands, and income distribution and poverty. The sociocultural setting is then explored by considering exposure to the international environment, ethnicity and cultural affinity, the formation of information and job placement networks, the supportive role of the family, and the impact of success and failure. Moving on the influence of the political setting, the paper then discusses the government policy of foreign employment promotion as well as the influence of political developments on migration. In conclusion, the paper notes that future demand for domestic service workers will likely increase, and that Sri Lanka will continue to have a surplus of workers to fill this demand until the end of the 1990s, when a tightening domestic labor market and increased real wages will ease the push for migration. Political factors will continue to favor migration, however, unless a liberal democratic regime becomes the governing force in Sri Lanka.

Women's Work and Wages in the United States

I. Changes in women's work, 1900–1910. Trade and transportation, 203. — Manufactures; the continuance of the industrial revolution, 204. — Domestic and personal service workers, 206. — II. Wages of Women in the United States, 207. — Minimum wage means a living wage, 208. — Various investigations of actual wages, 209. — Effect of lost time and seasonal occupation, 210. — III. Causes of Low Wages, Lack of mobility, 212. — Youth, 213. — Race and immigration, 217. — Woman as a member of a family group, 222. — IV. Minimum wage legislation and the potential labor supply, 228. — Possible prolongation of the working years, 229. — Probable attraction of more women into industry, 230. — Part time workers may be transformed into full time, 230. — V. Conclusion, 232. — Needed measures of support for the minimum wage legislation, 234.