Conference Agenda

This is the second slot of a special session on the ‘formalisation of domestic work’. While the first slot deals with policy responses and the institutional framework, this second slot deals with the role of workers and employers when it comes to public policy formalisation efforts. Studies repeatedly show that the persistence of informal work is partly a result of employers’ and/or workers’ preferences to abstain from the formalization of their relationship. What are the reasons behind these preferences? To what extent is this due to the fact that advantages attached to the formalization of the employment relationship vary broadly across countries and might not be represent a substantial improvement for employees in many cases? What other factors keep employees and households from supporting the formalisation and normalisation of work; and by contrast, what helps workers to claim and enforce their rights? The papers in this session address both individual and collective strategies of domestic workers and employers in negotiating terms of work in formal and informal employment relationships.

In 2016 Jamaica ratified ILO Convention No. 189 (C189) on Decent Work for Domestic Workers, affording domestic workers a significant degree of coverage under employment and labour laws. However, while the state has a responsibility to enforce labour standards, in Jamaica, enforcement is largely left to voluntary compliance. Without effective enforcement, improved labour standards may fail to achieve their objective. The Jamaica Household Workers’ Union (JWHU) is the largest domestic worker organization in the Caribbean. By raising domestic workers’ awareness of their rights, assisting workers in filing labour standards complaints and grievances, and partnering with the Jamaican Ministry of Labour to register workers, we argue that JHWU is developing a regime of labour standards co-enforcement. Drawing on focus groups and a survey of domestic workers, our findings suggest that in contrast to “top-down” labour standards enforcement strategies, the organization and empowerment of domestic workers is key to advancing formalization and fulfilling the promise of C189.

A key challenge in formalizing domestic work is ensuring that social security is accessible, affordable and attractive to both domestic workers and household employers, and that these systems are easy to use. Addressing these challenges can ensure that social security laws are successfully implemented in practice, leading to the formalization of the sector. Increasingly, policy-makers are turning to the behavioural sciences to improve the effectiveness and uptake of social security programmes. By systematically identifying, understanding, and addressing the barriers that determine why workers and employers may or may not be registering to social security, such initiatives can help to bridge the gap between well-intended policy measures and the everyday decisions of people. This paper presents efforts to apply behavioural science in Argentina, Guatemala and Zambia to systematically diagnose the drivers of informal employment in domestic work at the physical, psychological and social/institutional levels, and to develop solutions to improve effective social security coverage on that basis

In Latin America, Colombia is exemplary in recognizing domestic workers’ rights to salary, social security, and other benefits. Since 2013, there exist two trade unions that together with other organizations work for improving domestic workers’ labor conditions. Yet, my 2016-2021 ethnographic research project on labor and mobility of domestic workers in Bogotá showed that domestic workers remain largely informal and unaware of their labor rights. Moreover, interlocutors typically saw no need to organize because they had “nothing to complain about”. In this presentation, I discuss domestic workers’ deterrents to formalization and organizing, especially structural impediments such as access to public benefits, Colombia’s conflictual labor history, the internalization of class hierarchies, and the local labor market. In addition, I present some national and local projects that might contribute to improving domestic workers’ situation. The paper contributes to discussions about class, labor-organization, and inequality in the Global South and beyond.

Paid domestic workers won full legal rights and social protection in Peru (Law 31047/2020), operationalized in April 2021. Since then, the Ministry of Labor requires employers to register written contracts through its website. Recent research suggests that the expansion of labor rights and the formal inscription of workers were unpopular among some of Peru’s employers. Likewise, those willing to comply with new guidelines faced bureaucratic barriers. Three years later, there is no clear information as to how many employers have registered workers and to what extent the law is being implemented and monitored by the state. Our study examines two primary databases: the Registry of Domestic Work and the National Household Survey to report on the extent of registration. Furthermore, we conduct a survey to a sample of employers and workers to obtain qualitative data regarding the extent of the implementation of the law, challenges, and possible policy alternatives.