Simon Black | Domestic workers need government action, not a bagga mouth

In thousands of households across Jamaica, domestic workers do the work of cooking, cleaning, gardening, and caring for children, the elderly, and people with disabilities. In the absence of adequate care leave policies and investments in social services, these workers play a vital, though often unacknowledged, role in Jamaica’s care sector.

While domestic work is essential to the functioning of the economy and to the well-being of many Jamaican families, domestic workers often experience low pay, poor working conditions and informal work arrangements. Due to their isolation in the home, they’re also vulnerable to sexual harassment and abuse.

It is estimated the number of domestic workers in Jamaica is at around 56,000, 80 per cent of whom are women.

October 11 marks the eighth anniversary of Jamaica’s ratification of the International Labour Organization Convention No. 189, the Domestic Workers Convention. The landmark convention is the first international legal instrument to recognise domestic work as equivalent to all other kinds of work and is founded on “the fundamental premise that domestic workers are neither ‘servants’ nor ‘members of the family’ nor second-class workers”.

Jamaica is one of only 38 countries to have ratified the convention. To its credit, the Jamaican government has made progress toward making decent work a reality for domestic workers, including by raising the national minimum wage.

However, a study I conducted with Dr Lauren Marsh, of the Hugh Shearer Labour Studies Institute at the University of the West Indies, found that domestic workers continue to experience deficits in decent work. Without government action, we fear that progress toward achieving decent work for this marginalised, but essential, workforce will stall.

We surveyed more than 200 domestic workers, held focus groups and interviewed key stakeholders in government and civil society.

Overall, we found that while domestic workers are generally covered under Jamaica’s labour laws, many experience an “enforcement gap” – the difference between the rights and protections established in law and those that are actually respected by employers in the workplace.

And while the Ministry of Labour and Social Security is sensitive to the challenges facing domestic workers, it currently lacks the capacity to adequately promote and enforce compliance with labour standards in the sector.

LACK AWARENESS

Further, far too many domestic workers lack awareness of their rights. Just over half of survey respondents said they were not aware of any laws that protect domestic workers in Jamaica. This finding is troubling, as workers’ awareness of rights is key to their realisation.

The vast majority of survey respondents identified low pay, long hours of work and lack of benefits as main issues facing domestic workers in Jamaica. Distressingly, 70 per cent identified verbal abuse, and just under 50 per cent, sexual harassment, as main issues.

We also found that domestic workers are generally frustrated with Jamaica’s slow pace toward making decent work a reality in the sector. For instance, nearly 90 per cent of domestic workers surveyed believe the government doesn’t adequately inform domestic workers of their rights; 82 per cent would like to see the government do a better job at enforcing laws that protect domestic workers. A common refrain we heard from domestic workers is they want to see government action to advance their rights, “not a bagga mouth”.

There is some good news. The Jamaica Household Workers’ Union, with over 7,000 members across 13 chapters, has done excellent work in raising domestic workers’ awareness of their rights and protections.

We found that domestic workers who are members of the union are more likely than non-union domestic workers to contribute to Jamaica’s social security scheme, twice as likely than their non-union counterparts to possess a written employment contract, making enforcing rights easier, and are far more likely than their non-union counterparts to be aware of their labour and social security protections.

These findings suggest that strengthening collective representation for domestic workers is a promising route to ensuring that rights on paper are rights in practice.

Our study includes several recommendations that may act as a guide to action for achieving decent work for domestic workers in Jamaica.

First and foremost, the government must invest in building the capacity of the Ministry of Labour and Social Security to enforce and promote compliance with labour standards in the domestic work sector – including through the creation of a domestic work section – and through public awareness campaigns to ensure employers and workers alike know their rights and responsibilities.

To strengthen collective representation and worker voice, the government should also work with employers’ groups and the Jamaica Household Workers’ Union to establish the legal and institutional framework and conditions necessary for collective bargaining in the domestic work sector.

The government must also take meaningful action to eliminate gender-based violence and workplace harassment, ensuring domestic workers’ have access to justice via the courts and the Sexual Harassment Tribunal and signal its seriousness about this issue by ratifying ILO Convention No. 190, the Violence and Harassment Convention.

Finally, the effective regulation of work is premised, in part, on knowledge and understanding of a particular sector and the conditions of workers therein, including through improved data collection and analysis. To this end, we recommend the government conduct a national study of the domestic work sector.

ROAD AHEAD

Decent work is fundamental to social justice, gender equality and fulfilling Jamaica’s commitments under the national development plan, Vision 2030 Jamaica.

Relative to its Caribbean neighbours, Jamaica is making slow but steady progress toward making decent work a reality for domestic workers – and the Jamaica Household Workers’ Union is establishing best practices in domestic worker organising and collective representation.

That means Jamaica has the potential to become a regional leader in advancing decent work for domestic workers. It’s a leadership role the government and civil society should fully embrace. As domestic workers themselves have put it, eight years following the ratification of the Domestic Workers Convention, now is the time for action to achieve decent work for domestic workers, and not a bagga mouth.

Dr Simon Black is an associate professor of labour studies at Brock University, Ontario, Canada. Send feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com