The groups and domestic workers immediately demand the comparison with the rest of the sectors

Euskaraz irakurri: Etxeko langileek eta kolektiboek gainerako sektoreekin parekatzea eskatu dute, gehiago luzatu gabe

Domestic workers have a special day today, a day marked on the calendar with two Xs, one of them is for the ratification of Convention 189 of the International Labor Organization on the rights of female workers in the sector, and the other x, for the call for the establishment, for the first time, of the negotiating table so that they can finally enjoy a sectoral agreement in the BAK.

Both are milestones that go hand in hand and although they have different origins, the basic requirements are the same: have the same rights as the rest of the workers in other sectors.

The sector of women workers is a sector in which women make up about 95% of the total in Euskadi and in addition with a very significant presence of migrant women, who in many cases are in the process of regularizing their administrative situation.

The situation is as follows in the sector, which has two distinct groups:

1-Those who are lucky enough to have an employment contractthese women fulfill their obligation to contribute to social security, but if they lose their job, they don’t get unemployment. This fact was denounced and the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) said that in Spain women were discriminated against (as a feminised sector), but today it remains unfulfilled.

two-Those who do not have an employment contract These represent 30-40% of the sector in the state as a whole, in Euskadi almost 30%. They don’t have any rights, they don’t enjoy rest periods, or vacations, or insurance, or SMI…

Of the Association of Domestic Workers of Bizkaia they condemn that “they can give labor rights without having to ratify 189 (of the ILO)”. “Unemployment must happen quickly, because there is already a ruling from the CJEU.” “Any housekeeper, undocumented or not, is entitled to the same employment rights as any undocumented person, according to the Immigration Act.”

“The most important thing is that Spain will once and for all introduce the rights for domestic workers in the Spanish regulations. The ratification of 189 would mainly mean that unemployment is included, contributions are paid for real wages, pension is calculated the same way it is calculated for the rest of the workers… For example, it would be necessary to reduce the week hours to 40 hours and, above all, to arrange the overnight stays, those who work internally,” they explain from the Association. To which should be added the inclusion in the law of occupational risks.

All this “can be perfectly captured through a Spanish standard, despite the fact that it can also be achieved through sectoral agreements. There are many countries that have ratified it and it has taken many years to incorporate it into their regulations,” lamented he.

For his part, Liz Quintana, a lawyer who participated in the process of proposing a collective agreement under the CAV, explained to eitb.eus that in its opinion, once agreement 189 is ratified, the Spanish government will opt for a reform of the 2011 decree that regulates the sector in a more direct way since, like the rest of the ILO resolutions, the person who signs it has 12 months to apply it. “There may be a legislative decree to do it in a more agile way, but we don’t know how far that reform will go.”

“There are issues, like unemployment, or something else, that we’re sure will be implemented before the year, and others will take longer,” Quintana added.

Collective Labor Agreement for domestic workers in Euskadi

Unfortunately for the female workers in the sector, Confebask has refused to be part of the negotiating table of the agreement, arguing that it has no representation in that area, as it is not considered an employer in those negotiations, as ELA and LAB report in respective notes sent to the media.

According to Quintana, the agreement would allow employees to have a legal umbrella that they can take advantage of to at least claim the rights they have already recognized and which are now “in good or bad faith of anyone. ” hires the workers.”

The negotiations that may take place in Euskadi, Navarra or other communities on the sector’s agreements are independent of the reform of the decree. “There will be issues that will be addressed with the reform, and there will be many that will eventually be left out, and the framework of this agreement would be the opportunity to be able to give that impetus to be able to gather them.”

The profile of female housekeepers in the CAV

About 95% of workers in the sector are women, with a very significant presence of migrant women. In addition, there is also the internal regime within the sector, which also provides care, says Liz Quintana.

Within the sector, the internal regime is most exposed to violations of rights due to working conditions and lack of control. About 95% of migrant women are those who carry out the internal regime in an irregular administrative situation.

For the vast majority, the gateway to the labor market it is through the internal regime. According to Quintana “they stay there between 3 and 4 years depending on how lucky they are to get a contract. Once they get papers, the vast majority try to leave the internal regime, move to external, and those those who are lucky make the leap to other more regularized sectors (corporate cleaning, residences, hospitality)”.

One of the women in that transit is Melissa Graves She has been a housekeeper in Bilbao for more than 3 years and is now in the regularization process. She has her main experience in caring for the elderly “it is the most accessible job when you are in this regularization process”.

Melissa had to stay two months of strict confinement, unable to leave the house where he worked “They brought me food only for myself and for the elderly person I was caring for. I was lucky enough to have the hours taken into account at the weekend, but the fear and the risk – for her, and for whoever was inside her.” situation – was that something happened to that person.” I had to redeem those hours and I was lucky that they were taken into account. Many other colleagues didn’t get those hours, they didn’t enjoy the two hours of rest a day…”. “There has been a lot of abuse by the families who hired them,” he said.

However, Melissa wasn’t so lucky with the subsidies to the sector due to the impact of the pandemichad no access because his administrative situation was still not regularized after almost four years.

Melissa is a member of the collective Hitzarmena Orain, which is working with the collective to formalize the sector’s union structure within LAB, “and we have been working through meetings for the agreement for a long time.”