ILO advocates social protection for domestic workers

The International Labour Organisation has called on governments to implement policies that will guarantee labour rights and social protection of domestic workers.

The ILO, in a report titled “From Global Care Crisis to Quality at Home: The Case for Including Domestic Workers in Care Policies and Ensuring Their Rights at Work”,  said that domestic workers played an integral and increasing role in care provision but lacked access to social protection.

It urged governments, workers’ and employers’ organisations to ensure domestic workers have access to labour rights and social protection.

This comes at a time of growing global demand for paid care, with an increasing number of countries facing a crisis due to large unmet care needs and ageing populations.

The ILO estimated that women accounted for three-quarters of the 75.6 million domestic workers globally.

“Given the disproportionate presence of women, the rights of domestic workers are key to the achievement of gender equality.

“In the face of significant labour shortages, countries are looking to improve female labour market participation, which is often dependent on the existence of sufficient quality care services,” it said.

According to ILO, this requires that care jobs, including domestic work, are of sufficient quality to attract jobseekers.

It explained that domestic workers hired either directly by a household or through a public or private service provider played an integral role in care provision.

“Even when only counting those employed directly by households, domestic workers account for at least 25 per cent of all paid care workers, including nurses, teachers, doctors, and personal care workers,” the report further stated.

It further said that the share of domestic workers among care workers was much higher in countries with little investment in the care sector.

“Yet domestic workers often do not have access to labour rights and social protection, and they lack access to care rights and services for themselves and their families, for instance, maternity protection, child benefits, childcare and long-term care services,” the report said.

It noted that those gaps in protection and access to services were more pronounced among domestic workers who face multiple forms of discrimination, based on migration status and ethnic or indigenous origin.

The ILO projected that by 2030, 1.9 billion children under the age of 15 and 200 million older persons at or above the age of healthy life expectancy would need care.

“However, this represents a combined increase of 200 million people in need of care, compared to 2015.

“In addition, the United Nations anticipates an increase in long-term care needs with the proportion of older persons (aged 60 or more) in the global population expected to rise from 13.5 per cent in 2020 to 21.4 per cent by 2050 and 28.2 per cent by 2100,” it indicated.

According to the ILO, due to demographic changes, the care economy is expected to grow in line with increased demand.

“If investment meets demand and guarantees decent work to care workers, the care economy could create an estimated 300 million jobs by 2035 and reduce gender inequalities,” it stated.