What is there for domestic workers today?

 

A photo of a domestic worker washing clothes. [Courtesy, Oxfam]

 

On this Labour Day, while workers across the world march on streets or convene in big stadiums to celebrate achievements in their respective sectors what is there for women domestic workers in Kenya.

They will be taking stock of hours overworked, minimum wages never received, incidences of physical, emotional, verbal and sexual abuse; and dead bodies of their peers arriving from the Middle Eastern countries every day. On this Labour Day, just like the name suggests, they will likely toil more because even though it’s a public holiday, their “deserving” employers will be the ones taking the day off

Amidst voices of screaming children and clangs of pots and pans; they will overhear, through their employer’s televisions, great speeches by union leaders on achievements made by workers in other sectors, salary increment commitments by government leaders for underpaid workers and many more. But like every other Labour Day, none of the speeches will likely mention their critical industry, domestic work. To the masters/mistresses, domestic workers fall short of valued industry players, and domestic work isn’t really one.

While they equally deserve time off with their families and friends or to attend to personal commitments, they will surely be locked in kitchens for endless hours to deliver the sumptuous meals and drinks their employers will toast and make merry over, with their families and friends; after all it is Labour Day! While the employers will have automated their “out of office” responses to anyone who dares sends them emails; domestic workers will be stealing moments amidst their busy day to stand in balconies of apartments to answer calls or texts from their loved ones, explaining why they can’t be home on a Labour Day.

While their employers will be splashing the hefty April salaries in parks, restaurants and liquor joints, they will be busy borrowing from the litany of popular digital money lending platforms to pay for goods sought on credit to support their families back home, because even though it’s the 1st of May, they are yet to receive their wages for April.

Driven by poverty and lack of opportunities, the unemployed domestic workers, popular with their moniker “Mama Fua” (women who wash clothes), will be traversing the leafy and gated suburbs of Nairobi, knocking from door to door to seek casual jobs. For the lucky ones, they will spend six to eight hours scouring, scrubbing, and cooking for a paltry Sh500. 

Whether seated along estate gates, standing on mansion balconies, or chaperoning screaming children in play grounds, they will all take stock of their tribulations; payment of wages below the statutory minimum, long working hours, absence of formal contracts, absence or restricted freedom of association by employers, denial of food and other basic needs, bondage through confiscation of identification documents, termination of services whenever employers are on leave and lack of social security.

On this day, just like past ones, the Government will be tight lipped on enforcing the statutory minimum wage; policy makers strangely won’t remember that the ILO Convention 189 on decent work for domestic workers hasn’t been ratified. Employers will continue to ignore formal contracts when hiring domestic workers.

The writer is Director at Oxfam, Kenya