By CHARLES SIMENGWA –
“IT is difficult to work as a maid with the poor salaries we get, but it is even harder if your employer treats you as if you are not a human being.”
This is the testimony of Dorothy Museteka, a long-time house servant who revealed sordid details about how some house helps are treated by their employers.
She narrated how some maids are not allowed to take part in any meal despite being the ones who prepare the food.
“There are also times when your boss will just phone home and tell you to spend the night because she is going out with her friends.
“The painful thing is that you won’t be paid overtime, and she won’t even bother about your family back home,” Ms Museteka said in an interview.
She is, however, grateful to her current employer, who she describes as a “humble white man who even pays my children’s school fees.”
Ms Museteka, a Federation of Free Trade Unions of Zambia (FFTUZ) trustee, was part of a national workshop on domestic work hosted by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) from May 27-28, 2015.
Domestic work has been a hugely invisible sector fraught with uncertainty, but that is about to change as ILO, in collaboration with its social partners, is advocating legal recognition of the field.
Despite the size of the sector, many domestic workers experience poor working conditions and insufficient legal protection.
There is wide acknowledgement that domestic work plays a crucial role in securing the maintenance and functioning of households, and the well-being of families.
The availability of domestic work enables household members to enter and remain in the labour market, just as it stimulates consumption and consequently contributes to economic growth by generating income for domestic workers and their families.
But despite the important space they occupy in the running of households, house helps have remained vulnerable as their coverage by key working conditions laws is porous.
According to a 2013 study supported by ILO on the profile of domestic workers in Zambia, of the 1,017, 236 elementary workers in the informal sector, 97, 652 were domestic workers aged 10 years and older.
The study showed that domestic workers represent an important segment of the labour force, which constitutes 2.2 per cent of total employment in Zambia.
Of these house helps, 67 per cent were employed in urban areas and 66.6 per cent were unpaid.
Women form the majority of house servants, at 56 per cent, while children are also engaged in domestic work.
ILO has been working with the tripartite partners, comprising Government and employers’ and employees’ organisations, since 2012 and it has been established that there is a lack of adequate and reliable data on Zambia’s domestic work sector.
Against such a backdrop, there have been many hiccups since this information is necessary as a basis for planning effective policies and actions on domestic work, and assessing their results.
ILO is providing technical support to the domestic work sector through a project entitled ‘Integrated Actions for Improving Working Conditions for Domestic Workers’.
The project aims to strengthen capacities of government, workers’ and employers’ organisations, and governance institutions to assess, design and implement effective policies, laws and programmes concerning wages and earnings, working time and other conditions of work.
It is on this premise that ILO, in coordination with the Ministry of Labour and Social Security, hosted the national workshop which gave an opportunity to the tripartite partners to assess the challenges in the domestic work sector in Zambia.
The workshop, held at Lake Safari Lodge, presented a solid platform for enhanced social dialogue among the tripartite partners and the key interest groups on critical matters affecting the sector.
It was evident from the broad representation at the workshop that Zambia is eager to introduce reliable policies and a legal framework that will protect the interests of this category of workers.
The participants were drawn from ILO, Ministry of Labour, Labour Employment and Agencies Association of Zambia, Zambia Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU), and Zambia Federation of Employers (ZFE).
Others were from the United House and Domestic Workers Union of Zambia, FFTUZ, Central Statistical Office, Labour Institute of Zambia, and the Ministry of Home Affairs.
Labour Permanent Secretary Trevor Kaunda, who officially opened the workshop, said house helps work behind closed doors in the privacy of people’s homes.
Mr Kaunda, who was represented by Labour Commissioner Cecilia Kamanga, said in some cases, this lack of visibility increases the potential for exploitation and abuse.
He acknowledged that despite having statutes that cover domestic work, there are constraints making the regulatory framework ineffective.
Mr Kaunda, however, said Zambia is committed to improving the working conditions of domestic workers, the evidence being the enactment of the Statutory Instrument on Minimum Wages and Conditions of Employment (Domestic Workers) Order No. 3 of 2011 and its amendment through Order No. 45 of 2012.
This led to the increase of the minimum wage for domestics by 60 per cent.
Additionally, the ministry established a domestic work sector tripartite plus technical working group in November 2014 to provide technical advice in the planning, implementation and monitoring of sectoral interventions.
The ministry’s vision is that a National Plan of Action (NPA) will be the main planning document for the domestic work sector, as well as a strategic tool for resource mobilisation and effective management.
There was general agreement among the workshop participants on the importance of bringing domestic work into the mainstream and to respond to human rights concerns. Among the topics discussed were the largely contentious minimum wage setting, hours of work, leave entitlements, social security, human trafficking, occupational safety and health, and some relevant international practices that may inform the NPA.
Thematic issues for discussion included live-in workers, migrant workers, international cooperation, private employment agencies, as well as compliance, dispute settlement, and enforcement.
The current legal provisions and the practices in Zambia were analysed in comparison with the provisions of ILO Convention No. 189 concerning decent work for domestic workers. Amelita King-Dejardin, a senior technical specialist from the Conditions of Work and Equality Department at the ILO headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, gave global and regional estimates on domestic workers.
She also shared experiences from the Philippines, where political advocates in congress are helping in efforts to protect house servants.
According to her, social norms play a big role as domestic work involves tasks that women have traditionally carried out in their homes without pay. These include cleaning, cooking, laundry, and caring for children and the elderly.
As the number of domestic workers rises, there is need to raise awareness on the minimum wage, legal discrimination, social security coverage, and hours of work, among other issues.
Chana Chelemu-Jere, the ILO national coordinator, domestic work project – Zambia, in her presentation said it was necessary to understand the national situation that would assist in highlighting policy and legal gaps.
Ms Jere, who led the participants in reviewing and consolidating the concept notes, said implementation of the NPA should be a multi-sectoral undertaking, and not just for the tripartite partners.
She also raised the red flag on internal child trafficking as a delicate issue that should be addressed.
There are many children brought in from villages with a promise that they would be taken to school, but they end up stuck as house helps and, in some cases, sex slaves.
Another stimulating discussion on the minimum wage was led by Clement Kasonde from the Labour Institute of Zambia.
Mr Kasonde, a lecturer under the Centre for Labour Studies at Mulungushi University, said the primary purpose of the minimum wage is to provide protection for wage earners against “unduly low wages”.
He said the minimum wage could be used as a tool for poverty reduction, and lauded Zambia for progressively implementing ILO Convention No. 131 on the minimum wage.
The Minimum Wages and Conditions of Employment Act, Cap 276 is the leading legislation that guides Zambia on the minimum wage.
To ensure that employment creation for domestic workers is sustained, ZFE manager – economics and policy, Hilary Hazele said there should be a fair balance between the interests of house servants and their employers.
Mr Hazele said domestic workers, who currently have a weaker negotiation platform for salaries and conditions of service, should be offered a chance at a reasonable living standard without compromising the position of the employers.
And as Martin Chembe, the ZCTU public relations director observed, there is a big challenge in penetrating the domestic work sector.
Mr Chembe appealed for active participation of all the social partners in mobilising actions that would ensure domestic workers were covered by appropriate laws by the year 2021.
Felicity Kalunga, an external ILO collaborator, presented findings of the comparative study of the ILO Convention 189 and national law and practice in Zambia.
The study uses the provisions of the Domestic Workers Convention, 2011 (No. 189) and Recommendation (No. 201) as the reference framework.
Ms Kalunga, from the University of Zambia, dissected the gaps between the ILO Convention 189 and the national law and practice in Zambia, after which the workshop participants made recommendations for the next course of action for the country.
Across all the social partners, the overarching priority is to harmonise the existing laws relevant to domestic workers in Zambia, and contribute to the achievement of decent work in the sector.
They all share a common vision to, by 2021, have a domestic work sector that will be protected by solid laws and workers covered by legal contracts.
With such efforts, there is no doubt that domestic workers in Zambia are on the edge of gaining legal recognition and enjoying better conditions of service.