COVID-19 pandemic puts livelihoods of over 55 million domestic workers at risk: ILO

The International Labour Organisation (ILO) recently estimated that amid the deadly coronavirus pandemic, more than 55 million domestic workers around the globe are at risk of losing their jobs and income. According to the official website of ILO, the domestic workers in Southeast Asia and Pacific were the most affected because of the unprecedented lockdown and lack of effective social security coverage. The organisation also estimated that vast majority, nearly 37 million, of these domestic workers are women. 

With strict lockdown measures imposed around the world, the ILO informed that 76 per cent of domestic workers were at risk in the aforementioned regions. While, on the other hand, 74 per cent were affected in the United States, followed by 72 per cent in Africa and 45 per cent in Europe. Amid such unprecedented dark times, the domestic workers, whether formally or informally employed workers, have not been able to go to work. However, while several formally employed workers still have access to unemployment insurance, the informal employees have been affected the most as saying home meant losing their livelihoods. 

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Claire Hobden, ILO Technical Officer, in a statement said, “The COVID-19 crisis has exposed the particular vulnerability of informal domestic workers, emphasizing the urgent need to ensure they are effectively included in labour and social protection”. 

Hobden also added, “This disproportionately affects women who make up the vast majority of domestic workers worldwide”. 

25% workers left without savings 

According to the assessment made by ILO at the beginning of June, only ten per cent of domestic workers have access to social security, which is no paid sick leave, guaranteed access to health care, employment injury benefits or unemployment insurance. The organisation further also noted that several domestic workers earn as little as 25 per cent of average wages which leaves them without savings.

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The ILO noted that while in some regions the domestic workers are mostly migrant workers who rely on their pay to support their families, there are live-in domestic workers as well who continue to work and mostly for longer hours due to the confinement. Moreover, according to ILO, in some cases, the employers have also stopped paying their live-in domestic workers due to their own financial circumstances. 

With the increasing risk to the livelihood of domestic workers, the ILO is also working with ‘organisations and employers’ organisations in a bid to ensure the health and livelihoods of domestic workers. According to the official website, ILO is undertaking rapid assessments of the level and nature of the risks facing the workers so that the government can devise policies that guarantee at least basic social security coverage, including access to essential health care and basic income security. Moreover, the organisation also called for efforts to formalise domestic work to be urgently accelerated in order to protect domestic workers from future shocks. 

(Image: Unsplash)  

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