Catalina Gomez, Rio de Janeiro Community Manager
Domestic workers — maids, cooks, baby sitters, gardeners, drivers, and so on — are a very important group within the labor market, especially in Asia and Latin America. However, domestic workers traditionally lack formal recognition, meaning that they have non-regulated working hours and lack proper compensation and access to social protection.
Brazil has the largest number of domestic workers in the world. According to a recent report from the International Labor Organization, there are about 7.2 million domestic workers in Brazil, 93 percent of whom are women. The Brazilian government reports that 20 percent of these workers are formal, meaning that they are properly registered and have access to certain benefits, like sick leave. The remaining 80 percent lack proper registration and the accompanying benefits.
With the constitutional amendment of March 2013, this situation has begun to change: the law requires minimum working conditions for domestic workers, putting them on a par with other salaried workers. The new rights include a regulated workload with a maximum of 8 hours a day or 44 hours a week, paid overtime, and the recognition of labor unions to ensure collective rights. Additional benefits coming within the next few months include childcare support for the children of domestic workers who are under five years old, unemployment insurance, and contribution to a workers fund.
Although it is still too early to evaluate the impact of this constitutional amendment, some consequences are already observable. On the positive side, the legislation ensures that domestic workers are receiving proper compensation and benefits for the first time. The rise of worker unions and support groups have worked to ensure collective rights: six of these groups were established within the first month, three of them in Rio de Janeiro. However, formalization also leads to negative effects: domestic workers are now more expensive to employers, leading to layoffs and the reduction of working hours in order to reduce costs.
Doméstica Legal (“Legal Domestic Worker”) is a company created in 2004 in Rio de Janeiro that works at the local level to support domestic workers. The organization provides assistance to employers with regard to the legal requirements of hiring and compensating domestic workers. The company offers a comprehensive web site and also provides assistance to domestic workers so that they can learn about their rights and responsibilities, as well as clarify questions on the importance of having signed contracts with their employers. In 2009, Doméstica Legal created a nonprofit branch to support the creation of regulatory framework in favor of domestic workers nationwide, with the aim of expanding the recognition and the fair compensation of the many Brazilian women working as domestic workers.
Photo credits: Marcello Casal Jr. and Ana Paula Viana