Gillian Atwell has been employed for the last 23 years. In other fields, she might have received long-service awards, promotions and pay increases. But the law does not recognise Atwell's job. She is a domestic employee. For Atwell, the lack of recognition is the biggest challenge she faces. Often, it leads to abuse and other injustices.
In a telephone interview with the T&T Guardian, she recalled being yelled at by her former employer and even being cursed on one occasion. "As a domestic worker it is tough. You face abuse, both verbal and physical. I remember we were moving and I asked them a question about the move. Next thing, the employer start to curse me," she said.
Unaware of her rights at the time, she simply remained quiet. Often, for domestic employees such as Atwell, there is no redress when incidents such as these occur. Even though they have a union, their voices and demands very often go unnoticed and unanswered.
This was one reason why Ida Le Blanc, general secretary of the National Union of Domestic Employees (Nude) lobbied outside Parliament on June 12, calling on the Government to ratify the International Labour Organisation's (ILO) convention c189, which accords rights and other benefits to domestic workers. The ILO convention was adopted on June 16, 2011. Since then, it has been ratified by only one country, Uruguay.
Le Blanc said many domestics, after working for years, do not receive pensions and any other benefits that workers typically enjoy. She said the convention will allow for decent work for domestics and they will finally be considered as workers. Atwell and Althea Coombs-Rivas know about this all too well. They have both worked for employers who have refused to pay the required National Insurance Board (NIB) contributions on their behalf.
But Coombs-Rivas said there is no fixed wage for domestic employees. She said some workers, who are lucky, will receive the minimum wage. Others, who are not as fortunate, she said, settle for what is given to them by the employer. Also, there are no rules as to what an employer can ask the employee to do, Rivas said, and this is why they are asking for a model contract to be developed that will set out terms and conditions of their employment.
Given these burning issues, Dr Gabrielle Hosein, lecturer in the Gender and Development Studies Unit at the University of the West Indies, believes far more work needs to be done on the rights of domestic workers. Hosein says the call for the ratification of the ILO convention allows for decent employment, which includes health and safety. She said domestic workers are unable to have cases adjudicated under the Industrial Relations Act because what they do is not recognised as "work."
This lack of recognition makes the issue a gendered one. It is a job considered to be mainly women's work. Low status is ascribed to it and because the job is performed in the home, it is often not deemed a workplace. Hayden Hernandez, acting secretary general of the Banking, Insurance and General Workers' Union (BIGWU), agrees the issue is a gendered one. He says the first step to getting the necessary rights accorded to domestic employees is to amend the Industrial Relations Act.
Hence, he is calling on Labour Minister Errol McLeod to ratify the ILO convention. He says the minister should have taken the matter to Parliament a year ago when the convention was first adopted. "This is where I believe the Minister of Labour has fallen down. He was written to do his simple duty. All he needs to do is to change the definition of what a worker is and include them," Hernandez said.
Hernandez applauded Le Blanc and Nude, however. BIGWU, he said, supports the effort of Nude. Le Blanc's biggest problem is that after 30 years, working conditions in the domestic space remain virtually the same. Le Blanc said: "There is no pension. Some employers have never paid national insurance. These are the problems we have to face. This is discrimination (against) women, as well as human rights abuse. Our skill must be recognised and paid for.
"There are over 10,000 domestic workers registered with NIB, not to mention those who work half-day, etc." Coombs-Rivas just wants her NIS contributions paid. She said she worked with her former employer for over 20 years and for the first seven years the NIS contributions were never paid. She also wants compensation when she is asked to work for her employer's children, instead of the standard remuneration she receives.
The c189 ILO convention, called the Domestic Workers' Convention 2011, which contains 27 articles, seeks to give domestic workers protection from abuse, a minimum wage, privacy and human rights, among other things.
NIB guidelines
According to NIB's Web site, an employer who fails to register themselves as employers or their employees, including unpaid workers and/or casual agricultural workers within the specified time frames, are liable on summary conviction to a fine of $5,000. The website reminds employees that they are to begin payments from the start of employment. This is applicable to domestic employees as well.
Any employer who fails to pay any contributions, or deducts part of the employer's contribution from the employee's wages, or contravenes any other requirement of the law, commits an offence and can be prosecuted and fined. It also states: "In addition, the employer is obligated to maintain pay records for each of his employees, including the unpaid apprentice and domestic. Such records must include the following particulars of each employee:
• Full name
• National insurance number
• Salary/wages and the period to which such salary/wage relates
• The value of the contribution paid for each week of the period to which the salary/wage relates
• The total contribution paid for the period to which the salary/wage relates
• Contravention of this requirement may attract a fine of $4,000 and six months' imprisonment upon summary conviction.
