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From "Good Spirit" to Employee? Strengthening Domestic Workers' Employment Rights in Latin America

From "Good Spirit" to Employee? Strengthening Domestic Workers' Employment Rights in Latin America

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by IDWFED published May 12, 2010 12:00 AM
Contributors: Katharina Meier/Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung
In the past ten years, laws have been passed in a number of Latin American states aimed at reinforcing the employment rights of domestic workers. In most cases, these laws would not have materialised without national and regional campaigns by domestic workers’ trade union organisations.

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Research reports, working paper

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In the past ten years, laws have been passed in a number of Latin American states aimed  at  reinforcing  the  employment  rights  of  domestic  workers.  In  most  cases, these laws would not have materialised without national and regional campaigns by domestic workers’ trade union organisations.

A key factor in the success of the trade union representation of domestic workers is the support provided by strong trade union federations and alliances with other political actors.  Also  decisive has been the support of allies in governments and parliaments who took up demands for the reinforcement of the employment rights of domestic workers.  A comparison of the Latin American  countries  in  which  the furthest-reaching reforms have been enacted indicates this.

These improvements in the law are overshadowed by the fact that very few Latin American women working in private households in fact benefit from statutory minimum standards. The example of Uruguay, however, shows that it is possible – at least up to a point – to overcome social acceptance of the informal employment of domestic staff. This transformation is the result of a government policy which tied the reinforcement of the rights of domestic workers to the introduction of collective agreements for the domestic work sector and to public campaign.

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