Domestic workers problems during Covid
In any age, whenever a pandemic comes, the world has to bear the burns of that for a long time. Not only severe public health impact, the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic has made drastic economic health impacts across the world. In many areas, the impacts are so devastating that they have undone decades of progress of humanity. Many reports say, people are losing jobs and poverty is rising globally in a big way. And the crisis doesn’t seem to end anytime soon.
And the hardest hit of the pandemic and lockdown measures are the most vulnerable people and communities in any country. Domestic workers are among the worst sufferers of the Covid crisis. These people have lost more jobs and working hours than any other sector, says a report. According to the International Labour Organization, the essential service providers remained among the most vulnerable groups during ongoing pandemic. And that is after many nations have made much progress in labour laws and social security provision.
Drastic fall in domestic workforce
Since the Covid outbreak, domestic workers worldwide lost their jobs or saw cut in working hours greater than workforce in other sectors, informed the ILO Director-General Guy Ryder. This workforce, in Q2 2020, had dropped by 25-50 percent in most of the Latin American and the Caribbean countries, and 70 percent in Peru, in comparison to pre-Covid data. Some 5 percent to 20 percent domestic job cut occurred in the most European countries, Canada and South Africa. Job shedding makes this sector bear 50 percent total working hours drop, in 13 nations out of 20 under review.
Ryder suggested countries to take immediate actions because eight domestic workers out of 10 are informally employed. Therefore, they have no legal and welfare protection. The world’s second highest domestic workers employer, Brazil has around seven in 10 informal employees, two times of national average. In Covid 19 pandemic times, not even 40 percent of domestic workers had effective social security linked to their employment, informed the ILO report co-author Claire Hobden. Emphasizing the urgent need to formalize domestic work in the country, she appreciated efforts from domestic workers and employers to fix “very different labour standards” in Sao Paolo.
Domestic workers issues during Covid
Other regions can follow these efforts to promote a recovery process focusing on most vulnerable part of society after the pandemic, Hobden maintained. When we see numbers in terms of age and gender, the risks for these people seems enormous after Covid 19 outbreak. As per ILO report, there are nearly 75.6 million domestic workers worldwide aged 15 and over, one in every 25 people employed globally. More than three-quarters of them are female. Gender-wise, Latin America and the Caribbean have employed highest number of women workers, at 91 percent and 89 percent respectively.
Female domestic workers are in majority in Europe, Central Asia and the Americas. By contrast, male workforce outnumbers them in Arab states (63 percent) and North Africa. In Southern Asia, female and male workers are in equal number. After the adoption of 2011 Domestic Workers Convention (No. 189), ratified by 32 ILO Member States out of 187, 16 percent more domestic workers saw labour law protection cover. However, 36 percent of the domestic employment sector still remains “wholly excluded” from this legislation. “The gaps are largest” in Asia and the Pacific and the Arab States, informed ILO.
