Domestic workers are 15.2% of all employed women in the Dominican Republic and they are vital so that many heads of household (men and women) can perform as executives, civil servants and independent professionals, however, they still do not have the right to a minimum wage, to working hours with established hours and to social protection.
TO Six years after the country ratified its adherence to ILO Convention 189 (2015), little progress has been made regarding the rights of domestic workers. According to the International Labor Organization (ILO), the Dominican Republic is one of the only two countries in the region that does not recognize a minimum wage for this type of employment and does not guarantee the right to health and social security.
The President of the National Federation of Domestic Workers (Fenamutra), Ruth Díaz, stated that they are fighting for the National Salary Committee (CNS) to establish the discussion table to address this issue that has a vital influence on the marginality and poverty of domestic workers.
“The particularities of domestic workers is that you have to see if it is asleep, if it is per hour, if they are intermittent days or the obligations they perform. If they have to take care of children, older adults, that is the challenge we have now to define a minimum wage, because without minimum wage there is no social security, ”Díaz explained to LD.
Of 24 countries evaluated by the ILO, in its report “Paid Domestic Work in Latin America and the Caribbean”, The Dominican Republic is one of six that do not have an established working day for domestic workers, along with Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua and Panama.
The ILO points out that, regarding the time of the working day, “the main gaps are in Central America” and highlights that in all these countries a minimum daily rest time is determined “in Panama it is nine hours a day, in Guatemala and Honduras ten hours a day, and in Nicaragua and El Salvador twelve hours a day ”.
States that in the Dominican Republic the situation is similar, the minimum rest time is nine hours. In this scenario, the real working time for those who perform this occupation could be up to 15 hours a day, according to the ILO.
The research released indicates that unlike other regions of the world, the hiring of domestic workers through agencies or service providers is still scarce in Latin America and the Caribbean and places the Dominican Republic among the countries where this modality is taking impulse.
The growth of indirect hiring in the future is an aspect that must be taken into account in order to ensure that countries have rules and regulations to protect the rights of women workers in this type of modality.
RD does not recognize maternity leave
ILO data show that in the region, nine out of ten people who do domestic work are women, so the The right to maternity leave takes on particular relevance.
In Latin America and the Caribbean, the vast majority of domestic workers (97.4%) enjoy this legal protection.
So only in the Dominican Republic this right is not recognized. In addition, the duration of the license is adjusted in most of the countries to the established minimum period of 14 weeks, but in Jamaica and Grenada, a shorter period of leave is recognized.
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