Domestic Workers

Domestic work has been a constant part of millions of women's lives around the world. This is especially true for low-status females. Female subjugation, slavery, colonialism, and other forms of servitude, have always been features of this work. In contemporary society, care work at home is vital for the wider economy. Expanding economies during the last 20 years created an increase in demand for care work. The use of women in the labor force, aging of societies, and the failure of public policy and legal frameworks to ensure a harmony between family life and work reinforces societal need for domestic workers.

Domestic work is carried out within the family, by family members or by other people outside of relatives. Although there is no fundamental distinction between work in and outside the home, and no simple definition of public-private, home-workplace and employer-employee, family members, including children are not regarded as domestic workers/employees. Their labor has not been recognized as “real work” by lawmakers and society at large. However, someone who is outside of the employer's immediate family and paid for his/her work is a domestic worker.

A domestic worker is defined as any person working under an employment contract to provide a variety of household services within the employer's home for wages. A domestic worker's employment contract embraces the elements of work, wage and dependence on an employer personally and economically. A contract of employment is often assumed to be a clear sign of a formalized relationship and taken for granted in labor legislation. However, in many countries, the ability to establish an employment relationship is deemed sufficient and the employment contract might be in writing or verbal. A written employment contract is an important vehicle to overcome challenges to the existence of an employment relationship and its agreed terms. Written contracts are often required when domestic workers cross national borders to work. Article 5 of Annex I and Article 6 of Annex II of the International Labour Organization's (ILO) Migration for Employment Convention (Revised), 1949 (No. 97), provide that an employment contract is one of the documents that should be given to migrant workers prior to their departure.

Domestics may live at their own home or employer's house as live-in workers. They can work full time or part time and work regularly or occasionally according to an agreed schedule, which might be hourly, half day, full day, weekly, or monthly.

Some of the specific occupational categories of domestic workers are cook, childminder/nanny/governess/child's nurse, gardener, laundry personnel, washerwoman, ironing personnel, driver/chauffeur of vehicle for private use, household employee/housekeeper/house-servant/maid/“boy,” elder caregiver, caregiver to the disabled or infirmed. Also on this list are night attendants, porters, valets, rural domestic workers/farm workers, “au pairs” apprentices, and student babysitters, including occasional/casual/short-term babysitters/caregivers.

Domestic work illustrates the roles of gender, class and ethnicity in placing domestic service at [Page 418]the bottom of the employment ladder. The literature reviewed points to the fact that domestic service has remained an activity performed by disadvantaged social groups of society.

Since globalization has brought changes in the migration process, which is no longer male dominated, as women in large numbers from developing countries are migrating to developed countries in search of work, the domestic work industry is now dominated by immigrant women.

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