The elusive dream of Africa's domestic workers

Kampala, Nov 29: Juliet, 20, works as a house help in Uganda's capital Kampala. She reveals that her employer has not paid her for the last five months. Her total wages now add up to $150 (€133).

"They take a long time to pay me. If at all they do, it is in installments. My bosses are rude and scream at me. Sometimes I am denied meals," Juliet told DW.

Thousands of domestic workers in sub-Saharan Africa share Juliet's experience.

Maureen from Kenya started working as a house help at the age of 18. She is now 25 years old. But, for as long as she can remember, she never got a formal engagement contract. Poor pay forced her to seek prospects in the Middle East, but the appalling treatment abroad forced her to return home.

"I went to Qatar thinking that my situation would be better, but the prolonged working hours were slowly taking a toll on me. The pay there was comparatively better, but the poor treatment left me with one option; coming back home." She still works as a house help informally and has to contend with the little she gets.

Jummai, 16, is a domestic worker in Kaduna, Nigeria. She works for two households but, yet, cannot comfortably sustain her basic needs. She also doesn't have a formal engagement contract.

Zambia has over 500,000 domestic workers in informal employment. Labour unions have renewed a push for integrating this group of workers in the formal sector.

"To have the entire sector of Zambian domestic workers covered in the formal employment bracket is our aspiration." Humphrey Monde, Zambian union leader, told DW.

The plight of domestic workers in Africa has amplified calls to integrate them from the informal sector to formal employment.

Little progress on reforms

The Domestic Workers International Labour Organization convention of 2011 promised a new beginning for domestic workers, commonly referred to as house helps. However, little progress has been made towards the realization of objectives.

According to the International Labour Organization, eight out of ten domestic workers lack effective labor and social protections due to their informal employment.

The convention primarily recognized that "domestic work is work" and domestic workers have a right to decent work, like any other workers. Furthermore, the convention stipulated that each member state shall take measures to ensure domestic workers are informed of their terms and conditions of employment.

Employers must do this in an appropriate, verifiable, and easily understandable manner and preferably, where possible, through written contracts under national law, regulations, or collective agreements.

"Countries with weak trade unions expose domestic workers to untold vulnerabilities because the workers don't appreciate the importance of insisting on formal employment," Francis Atwoli, Secretary-General of the Central Organization of Trade Unions in Kenya, said.

Atwoli, a top ILO figure, further urges workers in these countries where the ILO convention is domesticated to take advantage of unions to represent their issues.

Nkole Chishimba, a top trade unionist in Zambia, also agrees. "The push for formalizing employment engagements is the first step in tackling this exclusion that has affected domestic workers for centuries," Chishimba told DW

Little interest in domestic workers convention

Out of the 35 countries that have signed the convention, Madagascar, Mauritius, Namibia, Sierra Leone, and South Africa are the only African nations that have joined the treaty. That few countries have ratified the domestic workers' convention shows how challenging it is to reform the sector and provide decent work for domestic workers.

As a result, millions of domestic workers are still reeling from perennial challenges ranging from poor working conditions, less pay to untold abuses. They don't enjoy working benefits, both in law and in practice. They are denied benefits including and not limited to a basic formal contract, health insurance, secure pension, and holidays.

The pivotal role of domestic workers

Ironically, millions of these workers continue to play a central role in supporting the care needs of households. They also significantly reduce gender inequality by enabling millions of female employers to work in the formal sector.

Carol Kinyugo, a Kenyan-based journalist and mother of two, told DW that she has been able to competitively tackle her demanding workflow because she has someone who takes care of her two children.

“I come from work very late so these girls do a lot of work throughout the day with commitment and dedication," Kinyugo said. "When a woman is stable at her place of work she is able to fight her way up in the ladder in management, you get to give your best at work because there is someone you have left behind to take care of your children."

Kinyugo added that there is always a high turnover among the house-helps and families privileged to get a commitment caregiver should improve their working conditions.

She said she fully supported calls for integrating domestic workers into formal employment. This, she said, offers them the path to decent work.

Source: DW