Passive victims or empowered actors: Accommodating the needs of child domestic workers

2013 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 97-126 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dianne Scullion
Keyword(s):  
Domestic Work ◽  
Domestic Workers ◽  
Legal Regulation ◽  
Best Interests ◽  
Employment Decisions ◽  
Autonomous Decision ◽  
Alternative Approach

Legal regulation of child employment takes a particular focus, with concern surrounding children’s right to protection from exploitative work. Using domestic work as a case study, this article demonstrates that there is little or no consideration of the possibility that children discovered in domestic work, are there as a result of their own autonomous decision to enter what they view as an employment arrangement. Instead, there is often an assumption that these children have been trafficked. A child’s right to be heard under Article 12, UNCRC, and their right to protection from exploitative employment under Article 32, UNCRC, are relevant to this discussion, as are the decisions made for the child on the basis of their best interests under Article 3, UNCRC. An alternative approach is suggested which may help to empower children, enabling well-informed employment decisions to be made, rather than only ever treating them as passive victims.

scholarly journals ‘It isn’t “help,” it’s work’: Legal regulation of domestic work in Bangladesh

2018 ◽  
Vol 47 (4) ◽  
pp. 272-289
Author(s):  
Mia Mahmudur Rahim ◽  
Sk Samidul Islam
Keyword(s):  
Domestic Work ◽  
Domestic Workers ◽  
Legal Regulation ◽  
Legal Provisions ◽  
Dependency Relationship ◽  
Legal Context

Although many households in Bangladesh employ domestic workers, these workers remain outside any legal regulation framework. By evaluating the country’s legal context, this article reveals that existing legal provisions for domestic work are extremely limited and insufficiently safeguard workers’ rights. A new regulation is necessary; this article details the essentials of such legislation. The proposed legislation involves a stakeholder initiative to transform the existing manipulative dependency relationship to a more equitable relationship between the domestic workers and their employers.

“We cannot discriminate against someone without an eye or a leg … But I do look at obesity”: Statistical discrimination and employers’ recruitment strategies at housecleaning service companies in Johannesburg

2019 ◽  
Vol 40 (1) ◽  
pp. 25-41
Author(s):  
David Du Toit
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Domestic Work ◽  
Domestic Workers ◽  
Recruitment Strategies ◽  
Strong Impact ◽  
Recruitment Process ◽  
Demographic Profile ◽  
Job Seeking ◽  
Service Companies ◽  
Personal Skills

The landscape of paid domestic work has changed considerably in recent years with the growth in the number of housecleaning service companies in South Africa and elsewhere. Housecleaning service companies transform domestic work into a service economy where trained domestic workers render a professional cleaning service to clients. In South Africa, little is known about the factors that employers at housecleaning service companies take into consideration during the selection and recruitment process. A key feature of paid domestic work is the gender, class and race constructions of domestic workers, the vast majority of whom are women, usually women of colour, from low socio-economic backgrounds. Whether we are seeing a change in the demographic profile of domestic workers with the growth of housecleaning service companies remains unclear. This paper therefore focuses on the recruitment strategies of employers at selected housecleaning service companies in Johannesburg in an attempt to shed light on the challenges that jobseeking domestic workers may face. Open-ended interviews with managers revealed that gender, race, age, long-term unemployment, and technical and personal skills of job-seeking domestic workers have a strong impact on the recruitment process, while immigration status plays a somewhat reduced role. This paper concludes that housecleaning service companies have not changed the demographic profile of domestic workers in South Africa yet, and that paid domestic work is still predominantly a black woman’s job.

An Ethnographic Assessment of Female Intra-Household Bargaining Power: A Case Study of Domestic Workers from India during a Pandemic

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Deepanshu Mohan ◽  
Richa Sekhani ◽  
shivani agarwal ◽  
Kensiya Kennedy ◽  
Mansi Singh
Keyword(s):  
Bargaining Power ◽  
Domestic Workers ◽  
Household Bargaining

Organizing Domestic Workers and Workplace Rights: A Case Study from Hyderabad

2011 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 31-46 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vasanthi Nimushakavi
Keyword(s):  
Domestic Workers ◽  
Workplace Rights

scholarly journals Creating and Maintaining Structural Hindrances to Criminal Justice Control – A Policy Analysis on the Normalisation of Parental Violence as a Crime in Finland

2021 ◽  
pp. 096466392110208
Author(s):  
Riikka Kotanen
Keyword(s):  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Criminal Law ◽  
Interpersonal Violence ◽  
Legal Regulation ◽  
Division Of Labour ◽  
Legal Form ◽  
Parental Violence ◽  
Control Policies ◽  
And Control

In the context of home, violence remains more accepted when committed against children than adults. Normalisation of parental violence has been documented in attitudinal surveys, professional practices, and legal regulation. For example, in many countries violent disciplining of children is the only legal form of interpersonal violence. This study explores the societal invisibility and normalisation of parental violence as a crime by analysing legislation and control policies regulating the division of labour and involvement between social welfare and criminal justice authorities. An empirical case study from Finland, where all forms of parental violence were legally prohibited in 1983, is used to elucidate the divergence between (criminal) law and control policies. The analysis demonstrates how normalisation operates at the policy-level where, within the same system of control that criminalised these acts, structural hindrances are built to prevent criminal justice interventions.

scholarly journals How medical dominance and interprofessional conflicts undermine patient-centred care in hospitals: historical analysis and multiple embedded case study in Morocco

2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (7) ◽  
pp. e006140
Author(s):  
Zakaria Belrhiti ◽  
Sara Van Belle ◽  
Bart Criel
Keyword(s):  
Soft Power ◽  
Health Workers ◽  
Interprofessional Collaboration ◽  
Historical Analysis ◽  
Best Interests ◽  
Group Discussions ◽  
Power Struggles ◽  
Embedded Case Study ◽  
Health Managers

BackgroundIn Morocco’s health systems, reforms were accompanied by increased tensions among doctors, nurses and health managers, poor interprofessional collaboration and counterproductive power struggles. However, little attention has focused on the processes underlying these interprofessional conflicts and their nature. Here, we explored the perspective of health workers and managers in four Moroccan hospitals.MethodsWe adopted a multiple embedded case study design and conducted 68 interviews, 8 focus group discussions and 11 group discussions with doctors, nurses, administrators and health managers at different organisational levels. We analysed what health workers (doctors and nurses) and health managers said about their sources of power, perceived roles and relationships with other healthcare professions. For our iterative qualitative data analysis, we coded all data sources using NVivo V.11 software and carried out thematic analysis using the concepts of ‘negotiated order’ and the four worldviews. For context, we used historical analysis to trace the development of medical and nursing professions during the colonial and postcolonial eras in Morocco.ResultsOur findings highlight professional hierarchies that counterbalance the power of formal hierarchies. Interprofessional interactions in Moroccan hospitals are marked by conflicts, power struggles and daily negotiated orders that may not serve the best interests of patients. The results confirm the dominance of medical specialists occupying the top of the professional hierarchy pyramid, as perceived at all levels in the four hospitals. In addition, health managers, lacking institutional backing, resources and decision spaces, often must rely on soft power when dealing with health workers to ensure smooth collaboration in care.ConclusionThe stratified order of care professions creates hierarchical professional boundaries in Moroccan hospitals, leading to partitioning of care and poor interprofessional collaboration. More attention should be placed on empowering health workers in delivering quality care by ensuring smooth interprofessional collaboration.

Grandparent Carers, Child Protection Practice, and the Best Interests of Children: A Case Study

2019 ◽  
Vol 72 (3) ◽  
pp. 299-311
Author(s):  
Susan Gair ◽  
Ines Zuchowski
Keyword(s):  
Child Protection ◽  
Best Interests

DOMESTIC WORKERS AND COOPERATIVES: BEYONDCARE GOES BEYOND CAPITALISM, A CASE STUDY IN BROOKLYN, NEW YORK

WorkingUSA ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 347-365 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ken Estey
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Domestic Workers
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