Call to clean up domestic-work sector

An ironing board is seen backstage before the Monique Lhuillier Spring/Summer 2014 collection show during New York Fashion Week September 7, 2013. REUTERS/Eric Thayer (UNITED STATES - Tags: FASHION)

An ironing board is seen backstage before the Monique Lhuillier Spring/Summer 2014 collection show during New York Fashion Week September 7, 2013. REUTERS/Eric Thayer (UNITED STATES - Tags: FASHION)

Published Nov 5, 2014

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Johannesburg - Domestic workers in South Africa remain subjected to unfair and exploitative working conditions – often to a point where they are at the mercy of their employers.

Their vulnerable condition is in spite of the progress made in the development of policies to regulate the sector since 1994, says a draft research report by Wits University’s African Centre for Migration and Society released on Tuesday.

The report was compiled by Zaheera Jinnah and Monica Kiwanuka.

“For South African workers, there have been a series of policy reforms… Unfortunately, poor conditions in the sector persist,” states the report, titled “Doing the dirty work: Foreign migrant workers in the domestic work sector in South Africa”.

It paints a picture of a government that is complicit in the exploitative working conditions. It found that the government (especially the Department of Labour) was found wanting with regard to implementing policies aimed at curbing the violation of labour laws.

“The labour and migration policy agenda has “not worked in tandem… At a policy level, the lack of implementation of existing national laws has been described as ‘unfinished business’.

“Part of that rests with the limited capacity of the Department of Labour’s inspectorate division, which constrains its ability to systematically monitor and sanction non-compliance.”

The researchers called for resources for the Department of Labour to monitor and enforce sanctions.

The report also appealed for a vigilant civil society to hold the government accountable when it failed to take action against wayward employers.

“Without adequate training and awareness among workers and employers, capacity and resources for the Department of Labour to monitor and enforce sanctions, and strong civil society organisations to act as watchdogs, policy will not have an impact.”

The report attributes the failure to transform the sector to “a restrictive immigration regime” that had narrow avenues for low-skilled workers to enter and remain in the country”.

“The restrictive immigration laws for low-skilled labour migrants and regional inequality has led to the creation of a precarious working class of foreign-born workers”, which accounted for the domestic-work sector being dominated by workers from the Southern African Development Community region.

The report says efforts to reform the sector would be futile unless they addressed underlying factors, such as race- and class-based power, that contributed to the person’s vulnerability.

“This means many employees cannot engage or confront employers even if they know their rights as workers or feel exploited… Domestic work (remains) one of SA’s 11 vulnerable sectors because of the lower wages, exploitation and informality that persists.

“To increase their income, respondents prefer to work longer hours, for a number of employers and do… casual jobs. Many of the respondents worked for four or more employers in a week.”

The report notes that part of the reasons for the exploitative nature of the sector was because domestic workers were largely not organised or unionised.

Also subjected to exploitation were farmworkers, who were often underpaid and made to work long hours.

Although there is no overall minimum wage, farmworkers are covered by a sectoral determination set by the Labour Department. The minimum wage for farm labourers is R2 420.41a month or R111.69 a day.

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The Star

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