The Urgent Need for Domestic Workers to Form A Union

Babysitter, Domestic caregiver. Housemaid. These are few of the most challenging (and sometimes debasing) jobs in the Indian workforce. How much do you pay to your babysitter? The national figure is even not a three-figure wage. For house maids or caregivers, the average is only Rs. 1000/- for a whole month according to an Indian statistical research of domestic workers. It would not be wrong to say that domestic workers today are in an urgent need of a union.

 

The National Domestic Workers Alliance, which aided in roll out of the research, stated that is embraces organization representing over thousands of workers, a smidgen of state-based corporations present nearly lesser. Fabulous, until you come to know that there are millions of domestic workers in India, not involving those that function for firms. Domestic workers are also not given the fixed minimum wages according to the Indian Laws. The abundant majority of them are more or less are placed in the hands of cruel employers. Some main findings of the study carried out show that:

 

• About 48% of workers surveyed are remunerated below the fixed state minimum wage.

 

• About 75% of live-in workers are remunerated below the fixed state minimum pay, and the average hourly wage of these domestic workers is Rs. 70-100.

 

• Less than 1% gets retirement or pension advantages from their main employer.

 

• Less than 4% work for people who pay towards social security.

 

• 65% does not own health insurance and just 2% obtain employer-offered insurance.

 

 

Domestic workers, in other sense, are meagerly paid; not-insured workers with no perks and no true support system to give back on to aid them improve their condition. Domestic workers in India have no benefits. Consider this: "Among domestic workers who are thrown out of domestic worker job, 55% are kicked out for complaining regarding working conditions, and 18 % are dismissed for protesting exploitation of their contract or job agreement". They do not have support of any recourse. Domestic workers are often seen telling that their work hours are frequently stretched or altered unpredictably. Majority domestic workers do not earn more money to leave their jobs, or opt for labor actions that can push around their employment. It is right that we Indian want our domestic workers to carry out task that are, if we are true to ourselves, possibly difficult than our own, yet we also anticipate them to agree upon working conditions that would respond to with affront if they were compelled on us.

 

Domestic workers are believed to carry out more threatening works than any other kind of employee than majority of us come across. Still, they are not able to bargain for sufficient pays, elemental benefits and decent working conditions. They actually require a union. And not alike workers in large retailer operations, they do not own a gigantic business machine consistently trying to avoid them from making a national union. All they require is a union to perform the organized domestic work.

Source : articlesbase.com