The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Minimum wages sought for domestic workers

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Friday, Sep 12, 2008
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Minimum wages sought for domestic workers

Staff Reporter

CHENNAI: The need to fix minimum wages for domestic workers was highlighted at a meeting organised by the Centre for Women’s Development and Research (CWDR) here on Wednesday.

The demand for minimum wages is inseparable from the fight for recognition of female labour in household tasks such as washing, cooking and cleaning, said CWDR Director K.R.Renuka.

“There are an estimated 15 lakh domestic workers in the State,” she said at the meeting organised on behalf of Manushi Domestic Workers Union.

In 2007, the Tamil Nadu Labour Department included domestic workers in the schedule of employment. However, the minimum wages are yet to be fixed. “Even the Welfare Board set up for domestic workers is virtually defunct with the board having no funds,” she said. The recent attempt to transfer the charge of welfare boards from the Labour Department to the Revenue Department delayed implementing welfare measures for domestic workers, she said.

Geeta Ramakrishnan of Unorganised Workers Federation said inflation had hurt the domestic workers in a big way but while the organised sector workers were insulated from it in some way because of dearness allowance, there was little to protect these women. “Rajasthan and Karnataka are the only States to have implemented minimum wages for domestic workers in India,” she added. In Karnataka, the wage has been fixed at Rs.8 per hour of work, she said.

She said maternity benefits, financial help for educating children and marriage assistance should be part of the benefits for domestic workers. She demanded that the Centre should not bring in the “poverty criteria” while formulating policies for unorganised sector workers. “The benefits of the Unorganised Workers Social Security Bill should not be made exclusive for those below the official poverty line as there are discrepancies in identifying BPL families,” she said.

The workers at the meeting laid down several demands, including prevention of child labour in domestic work, weekly holiday for domestic workers and implementation of labour laws for them. The women also demanded that films and serials depicting domestic workers in a denigrating manner be censored.

Labour Department sources told The Hindu that the government was in the process of setting up a committee to fix wages for domestic workers and representatives had been invited for the same. The source also indicated that without having an equal representation from the management (in this context employers) this committee could not be formed.

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