No more a domestic problem

* All domestic workers — full time and part-time — should get a weeklyholiday or else be paid an extra day’s wages if they were working all sevendays.
* All full time workers should get 15 days paid leave along with travelallowance, once a year, to go to their native villages.
* Full time and part-time workers who have completed a year of service areentitled to a one-month bonus to be paid on Diwali day.
* The employer must provide some amount of money to the worker to meet hismedical expenses or else cover all the medical costs that are incurred bythe worker.
* The employer must increase the worker’s wages as soon as the GR is issued.

According to the GR, which was based on the recommendations made by ahigh-level committee in June 1998, the employer and worker are required toregister themselves at the local labour welfare office at the ward level.Also at this level, a committee would be set up to look into complaints ofill-treatment and/or harassment faced by the worker. The committee wouldconsist of representatives from the Labour Welfare Board and the Labourdepartment of the state government, members from the union of domesticworkers and respected members of the community. The committee would meetevery three months to discuss problems and review solutions. As of now, thegovernment has decided to go ahead with the guidelines in Mumbai, Thane,Pune, Nagpur, Nashik and Aurangabad only.

While it is commendable that the government has finally taken note of theproblems of this sector, the subject is a virtual Pandora’s box that couldfurther complicate the issue.

To begin with, neither the government nor the Labour Welfare Board has anyidea how the provisions would be implemented. The GR doesn’t lay out anyplans on how this sector should be organised.

Says Santosh Jadhav, Secretary and Co-ordinator of SETU, an organisationthat monitors problems of domestic servants: “We urgently need all workersand their employers to be registered under some act of the government.” Howthe government proposes to bring all workers under the umbrella of thelabour welfare board hasn’t been spelt out in the GR.

The GR doesn’t specify a minimum wage level for workers. Even though, it isvalid only in six cities, the disparity is very large. In Mumbai itself,salaries to part-time workers in affluent quarters vary between Rs 400-600while in middle-class suburbs the amounts falls between Rs 300 and Rs 120.Full-time workers are paid sums between Rs 1000-5000, depending on theamount of work they have to do. In addition, many households take care ofone meal of the worker and pass on old clothes, utensils and books. Thesehand-me-downs don’t mean that the worker is being paid less.

While the GR insists that part of the worker’s medical expenses must betaken care of, it doesn’t specify how small or large that part has to be.The increment that is supposed to be valid on the date of issue of the GRhas also not been specified. Will it be a percentage of their salary or willit be a pre-decided amount? In either cases, the disparity in the pay scalewill serve to defeat the purpose.

While the rule guarantees the domestic workers a day’s respite from chores,there is no provision for action that an employer may want to take in casethe worker plays truant. Today, households don’t deduct a day’s pay if theworker doesn’t turn up for work. In fact there have been instances wheremany households together have been held at ransom because one family decidedthat they would start maintaining an attendance sheet. The worker communityboycotted the building. Even those who wanted to work were threatenedagainst it.

As far as the 15-day paid leave along with travel allowance is concerned,many workers take leave for a month but disappear for three months. And itis the employer’s job to find a proxy. But no one else wants to work justfor a few weeks. Either the employer has to continue with the substitute ormanage herself/ himself till the original worker returns.

While the Maharashtra Labour Minister Hussain Dalwai has assured that the“modalities of the GR will soon be worked out”, top officials of thewelfare board claim that “even if things start rolling tomorrow, it willtake at least six months to implement any of the guidelines.”

The state Labour Welfare Board disclaims all responsibility of implementingthe guidelines of the GR. “Our job is to make sure that the worker isregistered at our office,” says Welfare Commissioner Mohan Dhotre. “Wewill prepare a kind of history form in which the worker will have to answerquestions regarding his native place, level of education, duration since heis in that particular city and the number of houses he works in.” TheWelfare Board also plans to prepare a similar form for the employers. Howthe Board plans on disseminating the information about the GR among thedomestic workers and get them to register is still unclear.

(with inputs from Santosh Vijaykumar)