Intensity of Poverty and Work Diversification: A Study of Female Domestic Workers’ Household

2021 ◽  
pp. 001946622110153
Author(s):  
Sanghita Bhattacharjee ◽  
Bhaskar Goswami
Keyword(s):  
Domestic Workers ◽  
Jel Codes ◽  
Domestic Worker ◽  
Services Sector ◽  
Income Sources ◽  
Agricultural Employment ◽  
Poor Households ◽  
Secondary Sector ◽  
Motivating Factor ◽  
Large Sections

It is now a recognized fact that the earning from a single source does not provide a sufficient means of survival for a majority of poor households in developing countries. Accordingly, most of the poor households depend on a diverse portfolio of activities and income sources. This study is based on a primary survey of 334 female domestic workers in the district of South 24 Parganas, West Bengal, India from January to June 2016. The results of intensity of poverty show that 49% of these households are multi-dimensionally poor with 36.4% intensity of poverty. The severity and acuteness of deprivation is addressed by diversification into non-agricultural employment. The wage of the female domestic worker is not only an important determinant of livelihood strategy it is also a motivating factor for diversification. Large sections of the male workforce diversify into various non-farm activities such as manufacturing and construction in the secondary sector or hotel and restaurant, transport and so on in the services sector. Our findings reveal that diversification into non-farm informal sector is a vital option for livelihood sustenance irrespective of landless or land poor households. JEL Codes: J160, J460, J310, R23

Public servants working from home: Exploring managers’ changing allowance decisions in a COVID-19 context

2021 ◽  
pp. 103530462110555
Author(s):  
Sue Williamson ◽  
Linda Colley ◽  
Meraiah Foley
Keyword(s):  
Employee Productivity ◽  
Public Servants ◽  
Jel Codes ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
The Public ◽  
Work From Home ◽  
Working From Home ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Organisational Level ◽  
Large Sections

Before the COVID-19 pandemic forced large sections of the workforce to work from home, the uptake of working from home in the public sector had been limited and subject to the discretion or ‘allowance decisions’ of individual managers. Allowance decisions are influenced by factors at the organisational, group and individual levels. This research examines managers’ allowance decisions on working from home at each of these levels. It compares two qualitative datasets: one exploring managerial attitudes to working from home in 2018 and another dataset collected in mid-2020, as Australia transitioned out of the initial pandemic lockdown. The findings suggest a change in the factors influencing managers’ allowance decisions. We have identified a new factor at the organisational level, in the form of local organisational criteria. At the group level, previous concerns about employee productivity largely vanished, and managers experienced an epiphany that working from home could be productive. At the individual level, a new form of managerial discretion emerged as managers attempted to reassert authority over employees working remotely. These levels intersect, and we conclude that allowance decisions are fluid and not made solely by managers but are the result of the interactions between the organisational, group and individual levels. JEL Codes J81, J32

scholarly journals Urgensi Ratifikasi Konvensi Pekerjaan yang Layak bagi Pekerja Rumah Tangga oleh Pemerintah Indonesia

2018 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 109-133
Author(s):  
Kartika Dewi Mulyanto
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Social Status ◽  
Domestic Workers ◽  
International Labour Organization ◽  
International Labor Organization ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Decent Work ◽  
Domestic Worker ◽  
International Labor ◽  
The Social

The existence of domestic workers or better known as domestic workers is no stranger to the life of Indonesian society. Domestic worker is a job that provides services to a family to do homework such as cooking, cleaning house, washing clothes and others. However, because there is no regulation that regulates domestic workers maximally, and there are often different degrees between employers and workers, there is a lot of violence against domestic workers. In 2011, the International Labor Organization issued an ILO Convention No. 189 on Decent Work for Domestic Workers. This Convention as evidence that domestic workers need to be legally protected as human beings with human rights. Based on the result of the research, it can be concluded that the act of ratification of ILO Convention No. 189 of 2011 on Decent Work for Domestic Workers needs to be done, in an effort to increase the protection of domestic workers' rights law, to increase the economy of domestic workers, and to raise the social status of domestic workers Indonesia. Abstrak Keberadaan pekerja rumah tangga atau yang lebih dikenal sebagai pembantu rumah tangga sudah tidak asing lagi dalam kehidupan masyarakat Indonesia. Pekerja rumah tangga merupakan suatu pekerjaan yang memberikan jasa kepada suatu keluarga untuk mengerjakan pekerjaan rumah seperti memasak, membersihakan rumah, mencuci baju dan yang lainnya. Namun karena belum ada regulasi yang mengatur pekerja rumah tangga secara maksimal, dan sering terjadi perbedaan derajat antara majikan dan pekerja, maka banyak terjadi kekerasan terhadap pekerja rumah tangga. Pada tahun 2011, International Labour Organization mengeluarkan suatu Konvensi ILO Nomor 189 tentang Pekerjaan yang Layak bagi Pekerja Rumah Tangga. Konvensi ini sebagai bukti bahwa pekerja rumah tangga perlu mendapat perlindungan secara hukum sebagai manusia yang memiliki hak asasi manusia. Berdasarkan hasil penelitian dapat disimpulkan bahwa tindakan ratifikasi Konvensi ILO Nomor 189 tahun 2011 tentang Pekerjaan yang Layak bagi Pekerja Rumah Tangga perlu dilakukan, sebagai upaya peningkatan perlindungan hukum hak-hak pekerja rumah tangga, peningkatkan ekonomi pekerja rumah tangga, serta menaikkan status sosial pekerja rumah tangga Indonesia.

Is outsourcing better? Clients' views on contracting in domestic cleaning services

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
David du Toit ◽  
Lindy Heinecken
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Mixed Methods Research ◽  
Domestic Work ◽  
Domestic Workers ◽  
Research Approach ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Domestic Worker ◽  
Domestic Servants ◽  
The People ◽  
Routine Tasks

PurposeThe nature of paid domestic work is changing, with the growth in companies delivering domestic cleaning services. Few studies have looked at why people opt to use these services and the underlying drivers. As with the outsourcing of non-core tasks in businesses, outsourcing domestic work is motivated by similar, yet different reasons, which have to do with the personal and private nature of domestic employment. This study aims to establish the reasons why “clients”, who were former employers of domestic servants, opted to outsource domestic work to a domestic cleaning service provider.Design/methodology/approachGiven the limited research on domestic cleaning services in South Africa, a mixed-methods research approach is used.FindingsThe findings showed that there are three key motivations: the nature of the domestic cleaning service supplier, the services rendered by domestic workers and the tripartite employment relationships. These three benefits imply that clients have access to functional and numerical flexibility, unlike employing a domestic worker directly. This study contributes to the literature on outsourcing and domestic work by showing that clients not only look to change the economic structure of the relationship with domestic workers, but it allows them to psychologically and emotionally distance themselves from domestic workers.Research limitations/implicationsThis study shows that some people are no longer willing to have a relationship with the people who clean their homes, and that they believe it is simply not worth the effort to maintain a relationship. This is an aspect that needs further research, as this is the one sphere where women are united in their plight, albeit from different worldviews. Thus, a limitation is that this study only focuses on clients' views of outsourcing. Have domestic workers employed by the outsourced domestic cleaning service supplier become just like assembly-line workers, where they are anonymous to their clients, performing routine tasks with little recognition from those whose homes they are servicing? Future studies could focus on domestic workers' views on outsourcing and the effects it has on their working conditions and employment relations.Originality/valueFirstly, studies mainly focus on the Global North where domestic work and outsourcing have different dynamics, regulation policies and social changes when compared to South Africa. Secondly, few studies have sought to establish why people shift from employing a domestic or care worker directly to an outsourced domestic agency when direct domestic help is available and affordable. Considering these shortcomings, this study aims to provide a better understanding of domestic cleaning service suppliers from the perspective of clients, often omitted from the literature. Accordingly, this study aimed to establish what the benefits are for clients (former employers of domestic workers) who use domestic cleaning service suppliers.

Epilogue

2019 ◽  
pp. 131-132
Author(s):  
Erynn Masi de Casanova
Keyword(s):  
Social Reproduction ◽  
Political Instability ◽  
Domestic Workers ◽  
State Funding ◽  
Full Time ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Factors Affecting ◽  
Domestic Worker ◽  
The People

This epilogue looks at several new factors affecting domestic employment in Ecuador today which may change the landscape for workers, employers, and activists. First is the new government. If before, there was worker-friendly rhetoric and praise for humble domestic workers, but little concrete improvement in policies and conditions, today even the rhetoric is gone. The best way to reach and make claims on the new government is still unclear, and it will be difficult to obtain state funding for domestic worker initiatives. Second, there has been a “rupture” in the domestic worker organization Asociación de Trabajadoras Remuneradas del Hogar (ATRH). This situation makes organizing and advocating for domestic workers more difficult and may lead to confusion among policy makers and funders. Third, there has been an uptick in migration to Ecuador from Colombia and Venezuela, as people flee violence, political instability, and economic disaster. Finally, some of the people interviewed in 2018 claim to be witnessing growth in the proportion of live-in, full-time domestic workers. Despite changes in the context of domestic employment, however, workers' status has not changed much since this study began. Social reproduction is still devalued, informal arrangements still prevail, and the class gulf between employers and domestic workers remains.

Human trafficking: addressing the symptom, not the cause

2019 ◽  
pp. 145-166
Author(s):  
Kate Roberts
Keyword(s):  
Law Enforcement ◽  
Human Trafficking ◽  
Domestic Workers ◽  
Public Funds ◽  
Domestic Worker ◽  
Modern Slavery ◽  
The Uk

This chapter discuss how campaigning and amendments to the Modern Slavery Act, together with a government-commissioned review, resulted in workers being able to change employers within the six-month duration of their visa. In addition, those formally confirmed as trafficked are now permitted to apply for a two-year-long visa to work as a domestic worker in a private home without recourse to public funds. However, these measures fall short of the rights contained within the original visa, which not only worked to support domestic workers to escape abuse, but also went a long way towards preventing exploitative work and provided a pathway for those who had left exploitative work to move on with their lives. The chapter argues that the UK needs to move beyond the ‘rescue and release’ law enforcement-based approach that it has taken to date.

“Maid to maiden”: The false promise of English for the daughters of domestic workers in post-colonial Kolkata

2020 ◽  
Vol 2020 (262) ◽  
pp. 67-95
Author(s):  
Anindita Chatterjee ◽  
Anne Schluter
Keyword(s):  
Language Proficiency ◽  
English Language ◽  
Upward Mobility ◽  
Domestic Workers ◽  
Ethnographic Study ◽  
Observation Data ◽  
Power Structures ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
Domestic Worker ◽  
British Council

AbstractDrawing from a larger ethnographic study, the current article examines, through interactional sociolinguistics, interview and observation data related to English-language tutorials between two employers and their domestic workers’ daughters in two households in Kolkata. The post-colonial, South Asian context represents a site in which such scholarship has been underrepresented (see Mills and Mullany’s 2011 Language, gender and feminism). The focus of analysis is two-fold: it evaluates the existing power structures between participants, and it assesses the degree to which widespread Indian discourses about the upward mobility of English (see Graddol’s 2010 “English Next India”, published online by the British Council) are relevant to the current setting. In terms of power structures, legitimated domination (see Grillo’s 1989 Dominant languages) of the employer over her domestic worker emerges as a salient theme; however, affective attachment (adapted from Hardt’s 1999 article “Affective labor”, published in Boundary; McDowell and Dyson’s 2011 article “The other side of the knowledge economy: ‘Reproductive’ employment and affective labours in Oxford”, published in Environment and Planning) and reciprocal dependencies help to both reinforce and diminish the severity of the power asymmetry. With respect to the applicability of popular Indian discourses that equate English-language proficiency with upward mobility, the study finds little evidence of their relevance to the current context in which the subordinate positioning of gender intersects with social class to compound its constraining influence.

scholarly journals Urgensi Ratifikasi Konvensi International Labor Organization: Perspektif Perlindungan Pekerja Anak Pada Sektor Rumah Tangga

2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 24
Author(s):  
Rika Putri Subekti
Keyword(s):  
Child Labor ◽  
Action Plan ◽  
Legal Protection ◽  
Domestic Workers ◽  
Labor Organization ◽  
International Labor Organization ◽  
Literature Study ◽  
Domestic Worker ◽  
Rights Of The Child ◽  
International Labor

The issue of domestic worker has not become governor of Indonesia policy priorities. This can be seen from the lack of a structure for the comprehensive and lack of regulations that provide solutions, as well as lack of supporting structure of the implementation. The Act of Manpower is not regulating specifically on the protection of domestic workers, especially for children. International Labor Organization Convention Number 189 concerning Decent Works for Domestic Worker, regulates the protection of domestic workers all over the world, however, Indonesia has not ratified this convention yet. This research is normative legal research that using statute and conceptual approach. Data collection techniques used in this study is literature study. The results of the study indicate that the regulation on the protection of child laborers employed as a domestic worker in Indonesia has not been regulated separately so that in the case of legal protection is not sufficient, in the case of law enforcement in case of violation of the law on the rights of the child. The urgency for the Government to immediately ratify ILO Convention No. 189 on Decent Work of Domestic Workers in order to establish a standard of employment for domestic workers as an effort to realize protection for domestic workers in general and for child domestic workers in particular. It is important for government to carry out the National Action Plan for the Elimination of the Worst Forms of Child Labor (RAN-WFCL) to prevent and eliminate the worst forms of child labor. Isu tentang Pekerja Rumah Tangga (PRT) belum menjadi suatu prioritas kebijakan pemerintah Indonesia. Hal ini terlihat dari belum adanya suatu struktur regulasi yang komprehensif dan solutif, disertai struktur pendukung dalam tataran implementasinya. Ketentuan Undang-Undang tentang Ketenagakerjaan belum mengatur secara khusus mengenai perlindungan terhadap pembantu rumah tangga khususnya bagi anak-anak. Namun telah ada konvensi internasional yang mengatur secara khusus tentang Pekerja Rumah Tangga (PRT) yaitu Konvensi ILO Nomor 189 tentang Kerja Layak Pembantu Rumah Tangga. Konvensi ini merupakan perlindungan bagi pembantu rumah tangga di seluruh dunia. Namun, hingga saat ini Indonesia belum meratifikasi konvensi tersebut. Jenis Penelitian ini adalah jenis penelitian hukum normatif. Jenis pendekatan yang digunakan adalah pendekatan perundang-undangan dan pendekatan konseptual. Teknik pengumpulan data yang digunakan dalam penelitian ini adalah studi kepustakaan. Hasil Penelitian menunjukan bahwa pengaturan tentang perlindungan pekerja anak yang dipekerjakan sebagai pembantu rumah tangga di Indonesia belum diatur secara khusus sehingga dalam hal perlindungan hukum belum memadai. Urgensi bagi Pemerintah untuk segera meratifikasi Konvensi ILO Nomor 189 tentang Kerja Layak PRT dalam rangka menetapkan suatu standard ketenagakerjaan bagi PRT sebagai upaya mewujudkan perlindungan bagi PRT secara umum dan bagi PRT Anak pada khususnya. Upaya Pemerintah dalam mewujudkan perlindungan terhadap PRT Anak adalah dengan melakukan Rencana Aksi Nasional Penghapusan Bentuk-Bentuk Pekerjaan Terburuk Bagi Anak (RAN-BPTA) yang bertujuan untuk mencegah dan menghapus bentuk-bentuk pekerjaan terburuk untuk anak.

‘Illegal’ Migration as Resistance: Legality, Morality and Coercion in Indonesian Domestic Worker Migration to Malaysia

2010 ◽  
Vol 38 (6) ◽  
pp. 897-914 ◽  
Author(s):  
Olivia Killias
Keyword(s):  
Transnational Migration ◽  
Domestic Workers ◽  
Labour Migration ◽  
Illegal Migration ◽  
Domestic Worker ◽  
Illegal Migrants ◽  
Counter Narrative ◽  
Nation States ◽  
Dominant Discourses ◽  
Migratory Movements

AbstractThis article explores dominant discourses on ‘illegal’ migrants in the context of contemporary Indonesian labour migration to Malaysia. By focusing on the particular case of migrant domestic workers, it discusses recent political moves undertaken by both nation-states to regularise migratory movements. These state-induced efforts at regularising transnational migration have been promoted as combating trafficking and ‘illegal’ migration, but they have led to the legitimisation of a migration scheme that has much in common with colonial indentured labour. Hence, the paper argues that this ‘legal,’ state-sanctioned migration scheme gradually leads domestic workers into ‘legal’ — but bonded — labour arrangements and that the labour contract, as such, needs to be analysed as an instrument of subordination. Through the counter-narrative of Arum, an Indonesian domestic worker performing her work ‘illegally’ in Malaysia, the paper then goes on to argue that to migrate through ‘illegal’ migration channels can be interpreted as an act of voluntarily circumventing the ‘legal,’ state-sanctioned migration scheme. Thus, ‘illegal’ migration can be equated with deliberately resisting a coercive system.

Strong ties, weak ties: Exploring the role of networks in domestic worker migration from Ethiopia to the Middle East

2016 ◽  
Vol 25 (4) ◽  
pp. 401-421 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katie Kuschminder
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
Migrant Workers ◽  
Domestic Workers ◽  
Weak Ties ◽  
Strong Ties ◽  
Domestic Worker ◽  
Good Case

This article explores how migrating via a strong or weak tie results in different outcomes for Ethiopian domestic workers in their migration to the Middle East. Few studies have examined this question. Ethiopian domestic workers are a good case for this analysis as networks are critical for providing information and support for live-in domestic workers in the Middle East. Migrating via a strong tie was expected to result in better migration outcomes. The results, however, suggested that migrating via a strong tie can provide support in some cases, but is not enough to guarantee protection to Ethiopian migrant workers in the Middle East.

Home, domestic work and the state: The spatial politics of domestic workers’ activism

2017 ◽  
Vol 37 (3) ◽  
pp. 367-385 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kim England
Keyword(s):  
Social Movement ◽  
Domestic Work ◽  
Domestic Workers ◽  
The United States ◽  
The State ◽  
Spatial Politics ◽  
Private Space ◽  
Domestic Worker ◽  
Recent Emergence ◽  
Labour Legislation

This article explores the spatialities associated with the recent emergence of a social movement of domestic workers in the United States. Domestic work is rendered invisible, not only as a form of ‘real work’, but also because it is hidden in other people’s homes. The article unpacks the home as a private space beyond government intervention, and as domestic worker activists argue, when homes are workplaces workers should be protected from exploitation. Domestic workers have become active and visible in campaigns to gain coverage under labour legislation at the state and federal government levels. An analysis of the success of their campaigns reveals a set of strategies and tactics that draw on feminist care ethics in a range of different locations, and that thinking spatially has been pivotal in the emergence and continued growth of their social movement.

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