Catherine Sasman
30 November 2011
GOVERNMENTS in the southern African region are lobbied to ratify the International Labour Organisation (ILO) Convention 189 that seeks decent work for domestic workers.
The convention, which was adopted in Geneva, Switzerland, in June, aims at improving the basic working conditions of domestic workers by ensuring equal rights and protection, while promoting measures that take into account their special circumstances.
Ways to accelerate the ratification are now under discussion by the Southern African Trade Union Coordination Council (SATUCC) in Windhoek this week.
Minister of Labour and Social Welfare Immanuel Ngatjizeko yesterday said national efforts are required to advance the rights of domestic workers in line with the convention.
He said it is of particular importance to the region because of its historic colonial inequalities and oppression. Labour legislation in the last half of the 20th century affording protection to employees did not cover domestic and agricultural workers.
In Namibia, labour legislation devised after 1990 gave domestic workers some protection and social security by recognising them as employees.
Still, said Ngatjizeko, domestic workers remain invisible, isolated, and often ignorant of their rights.
Namibia’s last labour force survey shows that domestic workers make up 10,9 per cent of the workforce, and 19,4 per cent of women employees. It means one in every five women who work, works as a domestic employee. SATUCC president George Nkiwane said the deficit of decent work for domestic workers is huge.
Global estimates are that 56 per cent of domestic workers have no legal protection when it comes to working hours.
About 45 per cent are not entitled to at least one day off per week, and 36 per cent of female domestic workers have no legal entitlement to maternity leave.
Nkiwane said an interesting dimension brought in by the convention is gender equity in the world of work; more than 90 per cent of the domestic workforce is made up of women and girls.
Under the convention, domestic workers are entitled to a minimum set of protections, thus redressing the historic undervaluation of the social and economic contributions of care work.
Nkiwane said the ratification of the convention would open countries to international scrutiny and put pressure on member countries to enforce appropriate laws and policies.
Ngatjizeko said Namibia has identified gaps that need to be addressed before the ratification can be done in the country. These include the difficulty of organising domestic workers in trade union activities, and the absence of an organisation to represent their employers.
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Namibia: Convention On Decent Work for Domestics Advanced