manual: women workers' rights and gender equality - International ...

• Place a green fiche when the answer is the employer and a red fiche when the answer is the
homeworker. If the answer is partly the employer and partly the homeworker place both a red
and a green fiche. Place the fiches under the women at both sides of the drawings
• Do the same for the next picture: materials like cloth, thread and needles. Place fiches
• Do the same for the electricity, toilet and water. Place fiches
• Do the same for: food, drinks and snacks. Place fiches under the women
• Ask the participants what they see so far
Step 3
• Take the small cards and show them one by one, explain what they mean and place them
under the woman homeworker or factory worker as indicated by the participants
• The production cards and payment cards have to be shown as a pair: which one belongs to
which woman?
• Let the participants make up their mind about the differences in the situation of both women
• Discuss the situations using the following questions and introduce additional information as
given in the notes for the trainer:
- Who is better off in terms of money?
- Who is better off in terms of flexibility?
- Do they think the situation is fair?
- Why/why not?
- Do they think homeworkers need support?
- Why/why not?
- Can they think about possibilities to change the position of homeworkers?
Step 4
• Summarize the things done and learned during this session. The position of homeworkers is
very weak in terms of legal and social protection. They often work in an unhealthy or unsafe
environment, are badly paid and have no insurance
Notes for the trainer
After the participants came up with descriptions of home workers explain what a homeworker is
according to ILO Convention 177 on Home work.
Home work is:
• Production of goods for an employer, subcontractor, middleperson or agent
• In exchange for remuneration
• At a place of the worker’s own choice, often the worker’s own home
Home work is not:
• Unpaid work carried out for own family
• Paid work carried out for an employer in his/her home (domestic service)
• Self-employed person producing for the market at own risk (business woman/entrepreneur)
There is often a mix-up between a homeworker and a self-employed person because some people
do both in practice. Make sure that this does not happen in the exercise. Explain clearly that a
homeworker produces goods by order for a boss and for a certain amount of money. The boss can
be an employer, a middle person, a subcontractor or agent. There is a written or verbal contract
between the boss and the homeworker and the risk is for the boss.
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