Informal domestic work

 

Informal jobs in Peru are found almost everywhere, only 20% of workers or business are formal therefore, pay taxes. In this blog we have mentioned informality in different sectors such as public transport, local shops or “bodegas”' and Gamarra enterprise that sells clothes, textiles and miscellaneous things and also holds most of the “ambulantes” of Lima. In this post, we will address another type of informality, the economic sector of domestic work. 

Domestic workers are mainly found in households of the capital of Peru, where most of the middle and upper classes are found, and they hire people to do different tasks around the house such as cleaning, cooking,  taking care of children, and other jobs of maintenance such as gardeners and usually these jobs are for women, except those that require more strength or the ability to fix things. This type of job, apart from being informal, it also “symbolizes discrimination of origen, class, gender and ethnicity” (ILO (2013) pg. 13) and the reason is because many of domestic workers are women of a wide range of age, they don’t or have little education and employment experience, and come from different parts of the country, usually from the Andes. Another important issue of this type of employment is that many households hire underage girls, encouraging labour exploitation of minors (ILO (2013) pg. 14). This occurs because people tend to treat their domestic workers poorly, not only pay wise but the noticeable difference between them and the workers like eating in different rooms or at different times, or having special tableware for them. 

On the other hand, informal employment can be seen concentrated in many sectors with a tendency to grow. Domestic workers are one of those sectors which is characterized by high incidence of informal agreements and contributes considerably to informality, mainly among women. With the aging of the population, the increasing rates of participation of women in the workforce and the preference for caring for domicile of the elderly and chronically ill, families increasingly resort to domestic workers to help in their homes and with their children and elderly relatives. However, Domestic work has three specific characteristics in the context of the informal economy: the relationship of work takes place in the private sphere, the home; may not be very well defined or covered by rules highly personalized social or contexts; and remains outside the conventional regulatory framework of many countries (Eurofound, 2013).

In conclusion, it is therefore recommend to pay special attention to domestic workers, since it is one of the groups particularly vulnerable to the most serious decent work deficits in the informal economy. Informal employment can take different forms, and criteria used by governments to define and identify informal jobs and workers in informal employment also varies. According to the International Conference of Labor Statistics (17th ICLS), it is considered that wage earners have an informal job if their relationship of work, in law or in fact, is not subject to the national labor legislation, income tax, to social protection or certain benefits related to employment. In most cases, it is defined as the absence of employment related to social security, and in occasions coupled with a lack of annual license or license for paid sickness. (ILO, 2002; ILO 2003).

Bibliography

1. International Organization of Labour. (2013). “Trabajo doméstico remunerado en el Perú. Situación y perspectivas en función del Convenio 189 y la Recomendación 201 de la OIT.” https://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---americas/---ro-lima/documents/publication/wcms_213173.pdf

2. ILO. (December 5th, 2016). Formalización del trabajo doméstico. Obtenido de https://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---ed_protect/---protrav/---travail/documents/publication/wcms_574115.pdf