domestic workers: decent work for all – south africa - Solidar

1. Role of domestic workers in the economy
In terms of the International Standard Classification of Occupations of the International Labour
Organization (ILO), domestic work falls under at least two classifications: ―housekeeping‖ of a
relatively skilled and supervisory nature (including cooks, childcare workers and home-based
personal care workers) 1 and ―domestic cleaners and helpers‖ whose tasks include:
• Sweeping, vacuum-cleaning, polishing and washing floors and furniture, or washing
windows and other fixtures;
• Washing, ironing and mending linen and other textiles;
• Washing dishes;
• Preparing, cooking and serving meals and refreshments;
• Purchasing food and various other household supplies;
• Cleaning, disinfecting and deodorising kitchens, bathrooms and toilets;
• Cleaning windows and other glass surfaces. 2
In South Africa, the Basic Conditions of Employment Act defines a domestic worker as an
employee who performs domestic work in the home of his or her employer and includes a
―gardener‖, a ―person employed by a household as a driver of a motor vehicle‖ and a person
―who takes care of children, the aged, the sick, the frail or the disabled‖. 3 A distinguishing
feature of domestic work is that it is performed by individual domestic workers in private homes.
In many instances the domestic worker also lives on the premises of the employer. The
Department of Labour highlights a number of problems which characterise the nature of
domestic work, such as high levels of control, a regimented lifestyle, isolation, a lack of privacy,
job insecurity, poor working conditions, low wages, long hours and a heavy workload. 4
The ILO estimates that there are tens of millions of domestic workers worldwide, the vast
majority being women from the poorer sections of society. 5 Many work on a part time basis,
often for multiple employers. Many are migrant workers from other countries or from rural areas
in the same country. Large numbers of children are in domestic service and there are links
between children in domestic service and child trafficking, both within and between countries.
Despite differences in their working and legal circumstances, domestic workers worldwide share
common conditions, most notably their isolation, invisibility and lack of recognition of their
rights. 6
1 ILO Decent work for domestic workers Report IV(1), International Labour Conference, 99 th Session, 2010: Geneva,
First edition 2010 (hereafter ―the ILO Report‖) at http://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---ed_norm/---
relconf/documents/meetingdocument/wcms 104700.pdf (accessed 20 June 2009), p 30 Box III.1.
2 ILO: Updating the International Standard Classification of Occupations (ISCO): Draft ISCO-08 Group Definitions:
Occupations in Cleaning and Housekeeping (Policy Integration Department: Bureau of Statistics; undated) p 9.
3 Section 1, Basic Conditions of Employment Act 75 of 1997 (BCEA).
4 Media statement by the honorable minister of labour, Mr. Membathisi Mdladlana, on the release of a report about
wages and conditions of employment for domestic workers, 10 July 2001. Available at
http://www.search.gov.za/info/previewDocument.jsp?dk=%2Fdata%2Fstatic%2Finfo%2Fspeeches%2F2001%2F01071
0410p1001.htm%40Gov&q=(+((mdladlana)%3CIN%3ETitle)+)%3CAND%3E(category%3Ccontains%3Es)&t=Mdladlana
%3A+Wages+and+conditions+of+employment+for+domestic+workers [accessed 10 January 2010].
5 ILO: Briefing note on domestic work, prepared by S. Grumiau at the request of the ILO's Bureau for Workers' Activities,
Geneva, June 2007, quoted in ILO, GB 300/2/2, Proposal for the agenda of the 99th Session(2010) of the Conference,
Governing Body 300th Session, Geneva, November 2007. The ILO Bureau of Statistics Database shows that domestic
work is a far more important source of employment for women than for men. In Latin America and the Caribbean, 10 to
18 per cent of women employed are in domestic work; in the Arab countries, specifically in Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the
United Arab Emirates, the figure rises to over 40 per cent. Domestic employment is also important to women in many
countries in Asia and Africa: in the Philippines 11 per cent of women are employed in domestic work, in Botswana 11
percent, in Namibia 12 per cent and in South Africa 16 per cent. By contrast, in very few countries are more than one
per cent of men employed in domestic service.
6 Women in Informal Employment: Globalizing and Organizing, Informal workers in focus: Domestic Workers. Available
at http://wiego.org/publications/FactSheets/WIEGO_Domestic_Workers.pdf.
GLOBAL NETWORK 3