Dignity in Every Home campaign urges Johannesburg employers to protect domestic workers
Free practical guides launched to help households across the city create trusting, dignified home-work environments for cleaners, nannies and live-in staff.
Employers of domestic workers across Johannesburg are being called on to treat the women and men who care for their families, children and homes with the same labour rights they expect from their own workplaces.
The Dignity in Every Home campaign is a national initiative focused on strengthening awareness of domestic workers’ rights and supporting employers to create trusting, fair, safe, dignified and lawful home-work environments.
The campaign, which aims to shift everyday practices by providing practical, legal and easy-to-follow guidelines for employers of domestic workers, is being run by Izwi Domestic Workers Alliance, the Socio-Economic Rights Institute of South Africa (SERI), the United Domestic Workers of South Africa (UDWOSA) and the South African Domestic Service and Allied Workers Union (SADSAWU).
The campaign includes three resources, entitled: (1) Are You A Fair Employer? (2) Code of Good Conduct for Accommodating Live-In Domestic Workers, and (3) Employing a Domestic Worker, A Legal and Practical Guide, which provides clear guidance for employers and domestic workers, focusing on a range of issues including, but not limited to, dignified accommodation, fair pay, working hours, leave, dismissal procedures, and mandatory registration for the Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF) and Compensation Fund for Occupational Injuries and Diseases (COIDA).
These resources assist employers of domestic workers to have clear agreements and respectful working relations, which create security for workers and peace of mind for employers, helping households function with dignity and care.
Some employers assume that employing a domestic worker is an informal arrangement – even a favour to the worker – while at the same time depending on these women and men to do the most intimate and precious work of caring for our children, our elderly, and our homes.
“As employers, we must understand the responsibility we take on when inviting someone to work in our homes. A cleaner or nanny must have the same labour rights we expect from our own employers,” says Amy Tekie, co-founder of Izwi Domestic Workers Alliance.
“Domestic workers in homes are often working 14-hour days, living apart from their families, and earning well below minimum wage. Workers are regularly bullied, assaulted, and treated with blatant discrimination.
This happens behind the closed doors of private homes. It is now time for us to talk about this as a society, to admit that these practices are unconstitutional yet widespread, and to ensure that things change.” Tekie explains that the resources shared in this campaign will help employers to easily identify where there may be gaps in their employment agreements, how to address the mandatory government registration requirements, and how to handle tricky situations.
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“Fair and respectful working conditions create stability, protect employers, allow workers to thrive, and are a fundamental building block of our nation’s social prosperity,” she concludes.
When you employ a domestic worker, your home becomes a workplace, and you are legally required to know, understand, and comply with labour law requirements. Fair employment is not only a legal requirement; it helps build better working relationships. The campaign’s website includes a quiz called ‘Are You a Fair Employer?’
Also available as a checklist, it helps employers ensure they are doing things properly. Just some questions include whether you have registered your domestic worker for Unemployment Insurance and pay monthly contributions to it, whether you pay them at least the national minimum wage of R30.23 for every hour worked, if you treat them with respect at all times and whether their ordinary working hours are limited to no more than 45 hours per week.
It highlights that employers can better support their domestic workers in various ways, such as conducting performance reviews and contributing towards retirement, among other points. One way employers can do more to assist domestic workers is by paying them more than the R30.23 per hour minimum wage. At this rate, a full-time worker will earn R5239.46 a month.
From this small amount, they have to pay for transport, rent (for their families even if they live at work), electricity, food, clothes, school transport, sanitary products and airtime. The Living Wage calculator (available at www.dignityineveryhome.org.za) can determine if you are paying your domestic worker enough to cover living expenses. In addition to the checklist is the ‘Code of Good Conduct for Accommodating Live-In Domestic Workers.’
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This Code serves as a practical guide for employers who accommodate live-in domestic workers in private homes and residential associations (including body corporates, estates, and homeowners associations).To this day, many residential associations have rules that blatantly discriminate against resident domestic workers, limiting which entrances or staircases they use, forcing them to carry an ID, and excluding them from use of common property.
Many private homes also have unconstitutional house rules for domestic workers, forbidding them to have visitors, limiting what they can cook or eat, and even dictating where they can go during off-hours. Workers are forced to live in substandard, unsafe housing.
The Code outlines clear standards for accommodation, privacy, food, family and social life, equal access and treatment, freedom of movement and religion and freedom from harassment and abuse.
It is rooted in the rights enshrined for all in South Africa’s Constitution and is aligned with the standards of international law. By complying with the law, creating clear boundaries and laying a foundation for mutually respectful living arrangements, these standards ensure that no one is deprived of the basic Constitutional rights simply because of their occupation.
The third resource, entitled ‘Employing a Domestic Worker – A Legal and Practical Guide’, is a resource informing employers of their rights and obligations in the domestic employment relationship according to the law, providing advice towards creating a healthy working environment and supporting employers to improve their employment practices.
The guide, developed by SERI-SA & Izwi, offers a wealth of information on topics such as working hours, rest periods, wages, deductions, overtime pay, leave and night work. It provides content on making changes to terms of employment, conducting disciplinary procedures, registering for UIF and COIDA, and terminating the employment relationship.
Johannesburg employers who employ domestic workers are encouraged to download the three free resources and complete the “Are You A Fair Employer?” checklist this week at https://dignityineveryhome.org.za/.
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