In the past, having help with housework – a cleaner, a cook, a nanny, a caregiver, etc. was associated with wealth. However, modern labor market standards, which require all members of the family capable of working to enter the labor market, have made it more and more inevitable for families with any income to hire help, as people are no longer able to combine work with housework that must be done.
If a family or a private person hires another person to do housework, they must be able to pay them an appropriate salary. In this case, the employer is atypical and is often himself/herself an employee; the place of employment is a residential house instead of a labor institution. This is what creates the particular specificity of domestic work, and makes such workers – workers with particular needs.
Why should I be interested in this topic?
In Georgia, domestic workers work much more than they are supposed to, for which they are generally not compensated, because, usually, they do not have a written contract and they work in a family, an informal environment; this worsens their condition – adds more exploitation and emotional vulnerability to their low-waged work.
It is important to know what are the basic standards of social protection of domestic workers, what are Georgia’s challenges in this regard, and what can be done to ensure that their decent work is valued in a pecuniary form so that they can have basic guarantees of social protection, and therefore do not make the decision to migrate but instead decide to stay in their own country.
Our comment:
The concept of “domestic work” is not found in the labor legislation of Georgia, which leaves the majority of people involved in this work without all the social benefits that the national legislation provides for other workers.
For basic social protection, the country’s labor legislation and social security system must consider domestic workers and create the possibilities for them to enjoy maternity leave, medical leave, pension contributions, overtime pay, or other labor rights.
Since the social background in Georgia is already harsh and household incomes are generally low, it is difficult for domestic workers to request an increase in salary and they often make the decision to migrate, i.e. perform the same work outside the country. The state must have a strategy for maintaining its own labor force in the country, including domestic workers, and not for making them migrate. It can also develop the kind of social care and welfare services that will at least partially replace the demand for domestic work and spare families’ out-of-pocket expenses.
Historical context
Domestic workers working today in Georgia have one special feature - many of them are professionals from various fields who lost their jobs or professions after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Along with social and economic transformation in the country, a large number of women managed to establish themselves in the new market economy only as domestic workers. Many of them emigrated, and some of them - those who stayed in the country, still earn their living by working as babysitters, housekeepers, and help in families.
This means that most domestic workers in Georgia are not - unskilled, uneducated workforce, as it is in other countries, rather, a significant part of them are of a concrete age segment with certain qualifications and education, which have a memory of a better standard of living.
The scale of the outflow of women from Georgia as family workers, mainly to the USA and EU countries, is still alarmingly large. The main reason for this is the general unemployment in our country, and then the low wages of family workers. With the earnings received abroad through this activity, the emigrants can support their families left in Georgia with financial remittances.
What should we know?
- The particular specificity of domestic work is the special, emotional character of this work. In addition to the technical skills of cleaning, cooking, or other physical work, domestic work requires emotional skills such as needed for raising a child, emotional stability, communication, caring, empathy, and other skills related to a person's psycho-emotional resilience.
- Domestic workers work in a family, an informal environment, where the amount of labor to be done depends on variables such as goodwill, favour, etc. Due to this, nannies often work 24 hours a day considering that they are not paid an hourly rate.
- Domestic workers often develop strong emotional attachments to the persons they take care of, which further complicates their labor relations.
- Because of this emotional attachment, they often make compromises such as unpaid overtime work, extra responsibilities, etc., which harm domestic workers not only financially but also psychologically.
It should be stressed that in the case of migrant domestic workers, even though their remuneration is much higher compared to Georgia, psychological damage to them is much more severe and alarming, since:
- They suffer from isolation and separation with their families, accompanied by feelings of constant guilt and longing;
- Majority of migrants do not know the language of the country where they go to work. This makes it difficult for them to communicate with their employer and also makes them more vulnerable to aggression, abuse, and exploitation;
- Many migrants are in the host countries illegally, which deprives them of the possibility to enjoy the social services of the country in which they are; makes them vulnerable to deportation, and increases the possibility for the employer to blackmail, harass, exploit them;
- Their return is questionable, because the social situation in Georgia does not improve significantly, and the families they have left grow and constantly need expenses, which makes them stay in emigration for an indefinite period.
What is the solution?
- Formalization and legal recognition of domestic work will provide employees with social security services and benefits, and setting a minimum hourly wage will guarantee decent pay.
- It is the social responsibility of the state to ensure the development of such approaches that, on the one hand, will reduce the need for families to hire domestic workers, and on the other hand, save families costs, so that, if necessary, they can pay the domestic worker a decent wage. Examples of this include effective maternity leave, adequate, affordable child and elder care services, affordable quality healthcare, and etc.
- To prevent domestic workers from resorting to migration, the state must develop a policy of keeping its labor force within the country;
- For example, domestic workers, whether they are abroad or within the country, who have varying levels of education and work experience, should have the opportunity to work in the local labor market with their qualifications and profession, or at the very least, to receive free training in order to be employed in this kind of job.
It should be highlighted, that newly formed self-organized group of nannies and activists, the Georgian Nanny Association, has recently developed a contract for nannies, which is based on the labor legislation of Georgia and allows nannies to enter into a formal agreement with their employers based on those regulations.
The article was prepared with the support of Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung. The views expressed in this publication are not necessarily those of the Friedrich-Ebert Stiftung. Commercial use of all media published by the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES) is not permitted without the written consent of the FES.
