Decent work for domestic workers: Reflections on recent approaches to tackle informality

Canadian Journal of Women and the Law

Volumn 23, Issue 1, 2011, Pages 185-211

  Tomei, Manuela ^a  

^a NONE

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[No Author keywords available]

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EID: 79958072389     PISSN: 08328781     EISSN: 19110235     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.3138/cjwl.23.1.185     Document Type: Article

References (60)

1. The International Labour Conference (ILC) adopted, in 1948 and 1965 respectively, a resolution concerning the conditions of employment of domestic workers and a resolution calling for normative action. International Labour Organization (ILO), Record of Proceedings, ILC, 31st Session, 1948, Appendix XVIII, at 545-6. In 1970, the ILO published the first survey ever produced on the status of domestic workers worldwide. ILO
2. Official Bulletin (Geneva), July 1965, Supplement I, at 20-1.
3. Adelle Blackett, "Promoting Domestic Workers' Human Dignity through Specific Regulation", in Antoinette Fauve-Chamoux, ed., Domestic Service and the Formation of European Identity: Understanding the Globalization of Domestic Work, 16th-21st Centuries (Bern: Peter Lang, 2005) 247 at 252.
4. Part-Time Work Convention, 1994 (No. 97).
5. Home Work Convention, 1996 (No. 177) [ILO Convention No. 177].
6. Leah F. Vosko, "Gender, Precarious Work and the International Labour Code: The Ghost in the ILO Closet", in Judy Fudge and Rosemary Owens, eds., Precarious Work, Women, and the New Economy: The Challenge to Legal Norms (Oxford: Hart Publishing, 2006) 53 at 63-5.
7. For a review of the history, rationale, and implications of contracting-out of care labour and services by the state in the United States, see Eileen Boris and Jennifer Klein, "We Were the Invisible Workforce: Unionizing Home Care", in Dorothy Sue Cobble, ed., The Sex of Class: Women Transforming American Labor (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2007) 177.
8. Shahra Razavi and Silke Staab, "The Social and Political Economy of Care: Contesting Gender and Class Inequalities" (Paper prepared for the Expert Group Meeting on "Equal Sharing of Responsibilities between Men and Women, including Care Giving in the Context of HIV/AIDS", United Nations Office, Geneva, 6-8 October 2008), United Nations, .
9. Demand for domestic labour has originated traditionally from the upper social strata. Middle-class households, however, have smaller houses and can hardly afford the cost of recruiting a live-in domestic worker. On the supply side, we see demographic changes in the domestic workforce (workers are older than before and are originating, and increasingly so, from urban areas, while in the past they came mainly from the countryside and were more educated). The variety of their needs-that is, some wishing to reconcile paid work with family obligations, while others looking for just a complementary income, and yet others searching for a full-time jobexplains the relative rise in live-out work arrangements. Janine Rodgers, "Cambios en el servicio doméstico en América Latina", in M. E. Valenzuela, ed., Trabajadoras doméstical: un largo camino hacia el trabajo decente (Santiago: ILO, 2009) 71 at 76-80.
10. Marilyn Thomson, "Workers Not Maids: Organising Household Workers in Mexico" (2009) 17 Gender and Development 281.
11. Ruth Milkman, Ellen Reese, and Benita Roth, "The Macro-sociology of Paid Domestic Labor" (1998) 25 Work and Occupations 483.
12. Boris and Klein, supra note 6.
13. European Economic and Social Committee, The Professionalisation of Domestic Work, Opinion of the Section for Employment, Social Affairs and Citizenship, Doc. SOC/372 (26 May 2010), Brussels.
14. Jan Windebank, "Outsourcing Women's Domestic Labour The Cheque Emploi-Service Universel in Fiance" (2007) 17 Journal of European Social Policy 257 at 261.
15. Jan Windebank, "Outsourcing Women's Domestic Labour The Cheque Emploi-Service Universel in Fiance" (2007) 17 Journal of European Social Policy 257 at 264.
16. Annie Dussuet, Travaux desfemmes: enquêtes sur les services à domicile (Paris: L'Harmattan, 2005).
17. Laura Dresser, "Cleaning and Caring in the Home: Shared Problems? Shared Possibilities?" (Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, Industry Studies Conference Paper, Boston, 1-2 May 2008) at 16, Social Science Research Network, .
18. Francois-Xavier Devetter and Sandrine Rousseau, "The Impact of Industrialization on Paid Domestic Work: The Case of France" (2009) 15 European Journal of Industrial Relations 297 at 302.
19. CESU, infra note 22. The Cheque Service was first introduced in the Canton of Valais in 1999, followed by the Canton of Geneva in 2004 and the other cantons of French-speaking Switzerland, subsequently. The Canton of Berne is the only non-French-speaking canton that has also introduced this scheme.
20. Anna Maria Sansoni, Limits and Potential of the Use of Vouchers for Personal Services, Working paper no. 2009.06, European Trade Union Institute (ETUI) (Brussels: ETUI, 2009) at 12-13.
21. Licences are awarded by the Federal Ministry of Employment on the basis of a set of legal and administrative criteria. Lot du 20 juillet 2001 visanl à favoriser le développement de services et d'emplois deproximilé (MB 11.08. 2001), Belgium, c. 2, a. 2, para 2 (a) - (g).
22. Devetter and Rousseau, supra note 16 at 298.
23. Jacques Defoumy et al., "Les titres-services: quelle qualité d'emploi et d'organisation du service?" (2009) 69 Regards Économiques 6 at 3.
24. See Cheque Emploi Service Universel, Act no. 2005-841, 26 July 2005, Journal Officiel no. 173, 27 July 2005, at 12152, Article 1 [CESU], regarding the development of personal services and different measures towards social cohesion. The CESU unifies and substitutes the previous Chèque Emploi Service and the Titre Emploi Service (see Projet de Loi no. 2348 of the Assemblée Nationale, 26 May 2005, at 6, Article 1).
25. France, Conseil de l'emploi des revenus et de la cohésion sociale, Les services à la personne, Report no. 8 (Paris: La documentation Française, 2008) at 45 [CERC].
26. France, Conseil de l'emploi des revenus et de la cohésion sociale, Les services à la personne, Report no. 8 (Paris: La documentation Française, 2008) at 45 [CERC].
27. Recently, the legal basis for creating a new social Titre-Service has been approved. Social Titre-Service will allow low income people to acceed to Titre-Service at a minimum price of 4 euros. See Service public fédéral Emploi, Travail et Concertation sociale, Un "litre-service social" pour les personnes à bas revenus, SPF Emploi, Travail et Concertation sociale, .
28. For those exercising a liberal profession or those inscribed in the job-seekers list for at least three months in the year of reference. Espace Particuliers, Ticket-CESU, [Espace Particuliers].
29. For tax payers and those not having a right to a tax credit. See Espace Particuliers, supra note 26.
30. CERC, supra note 23 at 30.
31. Dynamisez votre politique RH. Augmentez le pouvoir d 'achat de vos salariés, sans charge pour votre entreprise, Ticket-CESU, .
32. CERC, supra note 23 at 25.
33. Loi Fédérate concernant des mesures en matière de lutte contre le travail au noir, Switzerland, 2005;
34. Switzerland, Conseil National, Interpellation Berberat Didier, Encourager le système de chèque-emploi, 12 June 2008,
35. Switzerland, Conseil National, Postulat Rennwald Jean-Claude, Lutte contre le travail au noir. Favoriser les chèques-emploi., 20 March 2007, . In German-speaking cantons, there have been some initiatives for regularizing the employment of domestic workers with regard to social security coverage. With the exception of Berne, these initiatives were managed by private enterprises.
36. Belgium, Service public federal Emploi, Travail et Concertation sociale, Évaluation du régime des litres-services pour les services et emplois de proximité 2007, (Brussels: SPF Emploi, Travail et Concertation sociale, 21 May 2008), SPF Emploi, Travail et Concertation sociale, .
37. France, Agence nationale des services à la personne, Rapport d'activité 2007, Services à la personne, .
38. CERC, supra note 23 at 22.
39. Republique et canton de Geneve, .
40. Switzerland, Chancellerie d'État, En plein boom, Chèque service couvre désormais aussi le 2eme pilier (Geneva: Chancellerie d'État, 16 July 2008), Geneva, .
41. Loi fédérate concernant des mesures en matière de lutte contre le travail au noir, 17 juin 2005) and Ordonnance sur le travail au noir, 6 septembre 2006, http://www.seco.admin. ch/themen/00385/01905/index.htmi?lang= fr>.
42. Workers of category A (receiving unemployment benefits), unlike those of category B (all other workers), were subject to a minimum working time of three hours per day. In both categories, the employer had the obligation to offer to the worker who worked under a short-term contract a fixedterm contract (at the seventh month for category A and at the fourth month for category B). Anna Maria Sansoni, "L'utilisation des vouchers en Belgique et en France dans le domaine des services à la personne: quelles leçons on peut en tirer?" (2008) 62 Working Paper Adapt at 16.
43. Belgium, Ministère de l'Emploi et de l'égalité des chances, Des mesures pour renforcer le conlrôle du dispositif des titres-services et assurer sa viabililé (Brussels: Ministèrs de l'Emploi et de l'Égalité des chances, 3 February 2009), National Employment Office, .
44. B. Croff, "La GRH demeure une question cruciale" (2007) 45 Développements 6 at 5-6.
45. Defourny, supra note 21 at 7.
46. Sansoni, supra note 37 at 28.
47. Yves Flückiger and Giovanni Ferro-Luzzi, Le travail domestique en Suisse, Calcul d'un seuil de salaire en usage en vue de l'édiction d'un contrat-type de travail au sein du secteur des Services domestiques en Suisse (Genève: Université de Genève, 2009), Secrétariat d'État à L'Économie Suisse, .
48. Service public fédéral Emploi, Travail et Concertation sociale, Fonds deformation Titres-services, SPF Emploi, Travail et Concertation sociale,
49. Belgium, Secrétariat de la Commission fonds de formation titres-services, Fonds de formation Titres-services Rapport d'évaluation 2007-2008 (Brussels: SPF Emploi, Travail et Concertation sociale, 11 March 2009);
50. SPF Emploi, Travail et Concertation sociale, .
51. Training can take place during or outside hours of work and is conditional upon the prior authorization of all employers in the case of those workers working for various employers. The Federation Nationale des Particuliers Employeurs de France is present in the twenty-two administrative regions of France and provides training activities through a national network of 160 certified vocational training institutions. Federation des Particuliers- Employeurs de France, Catalogue formation 2008 des Salariés du Particulier Employeur: Professionnaliser les emplois familiaux (Paris: Branche Professionnelle des Salariés du Particulier Employeur, 2008) at 3.
52. Federation des Particuliers-Employeurs de France, Catalogue formation 2008 des Salariés du Particulier Employeur: Professionnaliser les emplois familiaux (Paris: Branche Professionnelle des Salariés du Particulier Employeur, 2008) at 9-17.
53. Ana Virgínia Moreira Gomes and Patrícia Tuma Martins Bertolin, Regulatory Challenges in Domestic Work: The Case of Brazil, McGill Labour Law and Development Research Laboratory, Working Paper no. 3(2010) at 12-13, .
54. Solange Sanches, El trabajo doméstico en Brasil", in Maria Elena Valenzuela, ed., Trabajadoras domésticas: un largo camino hacia el trabajo decente (Santiago: ILO, 2009) 115 at 124.
55. ILO, Decent Work for Domestic Workers, Report no. IV (1) at the International Labour Conference, 99th Session, 2010, Fourth Item on the Agenda (Geneva: International Labour Office, 2010) at 77-8.
56. Nova Lei do Empregado Doméstico, Law no. 11.324, http://www.jusbrasil.com.br/legis lacao/95606/nova-lei-do-empregado-domestico-lei-11324-06#art0>.
57. Windebank, supra note 12.
58. ILO, supra note 48 at 85-6.
59. Bruno Lautier, "Las empleadas domésticas latino-americanas y la sociología del trabajo, algunas observaciones acerca del caso brasileño" (2003) 65 Revista Mexicana de Sociología 789.
60. Tom Hertz, "Have Minimum Wages Benefitted South Africa's Domestic Service Workers?" (Working paper presented at the forum on African Development and Poverty Reduction: The Macro-Micro linkage, Somerset West, South Africa, 13-15 October 2004), Trade and Industrial Policy Strategies, .