Dirty clothes aren’t just washed at home

It’s been more than 100 years since May 1, 1886, when activists from the United States staged a strike to put pressure on the 8-hour workday. Today it seems essential to us. Ironically, the fight for the rights of sectors such as paid domestic work still requires making society aware of the existence of their rights. Just one piece of information: the average for informal work in Colombia is close to 55% while it is 85% for domestic work.

What makes homework different from other jobs? I begin with the historical sexual division of labor that consigned the “domestic destiny” to women. For women, affection, domestic work, marital commitment, and domestic work became synonymous. From then on everything consisted in separating love from domestic chores, so that the former would be paid for with hugs and kisses, and the latter with money, social benefits, and guarantees.

The equation is complex because the home has two opposing functions: it is the family’s private space and it is the domestic worker’s workplace. as a private space that was closed off to the state; As a workplace it will be equivalent to a manager’s office or a factory for an operator. While a boss is in other jobs, the household employer is divided between father, mother, grandfather, and daughter, and even a visit is sent to the domestic employee.

Where is the field of human resources and billboards in homes and their obligations and opportunities? The quality management of the domestic service worker is supported by pieces of paper in the refrigerator. Are there meeting rooms for domestic workers to share with colleagues? peers? The nearest one is in another house. Looking for it could lead to a warning to quit your job.

We need cultural and technological shifts so that home is the place described in ILO conventions, especially 189. By the way, they just published Roadmap and recommendations for public policies. Making a Home Business a Decent Business: Investing in Care.

At the end of 2022, Bill 281 on domestic labor inspection was introduced, making it mandatory to have a written employment contract and its filing with the Ministry of Labor; Activating a complaints line and entering homes to search the interior. Similarly, the Ministry of Labor introduced the Elite Labor Inspection Group with a focus on gender.

These initiatives will serve as mechanisms so that the other criteria are met. However, problems are multidimensional, and solutions are multidimensional, because not only do men live by standards, and to a lesser extent women.

We already know: it’s time to get these problems that were considered “private” out of the houses; Broadcast it in front of public opinion and wash it with ingenuity and rights to shine the homes and workers in them.

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housework