Majority of domestic workers lack social protection; ILO

Geneva, Jun 16 (Prensa Latina) More than 94 percent of the world's domestic workers lack full social protection, a sector that contributes to care for family and households but remains undervalued, the International Labor Organization (ILO) said today. According to an ILO report, the limitations to social protection cover health care, sickness, unemployment, old age, occupational accidents, family, maternity, disability and survivors' benefits.

June 16, 2022
CDT10:52 (GMT) -0400

Published by: Ana Luisa Brown

According to Making the right to social security a reality for domestic workers: A global review of policy trends, statistics and outreach strategies, about half of these employees also have no legal coverage at all, and the other half are only covered by at least one benefit.

Effective coverage extension, adds the survey, has a significant delay with respect to legal coverage. Only one in five domestic workers is actually covered in practice, as they are mostly informally employed.

Similarly, the more than 75.6 million domestic workers worldwide face multiple obstacles to legal coverage and effective access to social security, the analysis explains.

But the situation is worse for the 57.7 million women who are particularly vulnerable.

The research highlights that the Covid-19 pandemic highlighted the gaps in social protection coverage suffered by domestic workers, who were the most affected and many lost their jobs and livelihoods.

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