15 Egyptian pounds (LE) per day for a full day of work (equivalent of 1,7€), or between only LE100 to LE250 for a whole month of domestic labor, with non-payment of wages, physical and psychological abuse, being locked up in undeserving conditions, and sexual harassment or assault: these are the common working conditions for female domestic workers in Egypt.

 

As for work legislation, the Unified Labor Law in Egypt (Law 12/2003) does not endow domestic workers (or seasonally-employed workers or other forms of precarious labor) with any legal protection. Legislators have never tried to provide protection to these vulnerable groups of workers, because they reckon that the private nature of the work space makes it difficult to regulate or control law provisions such as social safety, hours of work or any kind of abuses from the employer. It also has something to do with social norms and the law social status of domestic workers. Indeed, providing housemaids with legal tools that empower them to suit their employer if they don’t respect their rights is somehow disturbing for the upper social class. The Article 4(b) of the Unified Labor Law clearly stipulates: “The provisions of the present law shall not apply to domestic service workers and the like.” The Egyptian Trade Union Federation does not want to include domestic workers trade unions or syndicate in the Federation. Thus, domestic workers are not entitled to maternity cash benefits under national legislation or any other social protection as they are not considered as legal workers.

 

A common perception from the employers towards domestic workers is mistrust, either concerning the quality of work or commitment to working hours, or concerning theft in the house. This suspicion feeling often leads to pressure on workers as they can easily be threatened with prosecution if they complain. Besides this negative perception in terms of workers’ behavior, the whole profession suffers from a social denigration of their activity, making them feel even more powerless concerning the abuses they face.

The following extract from a documentary made by Al Shehab Institution[i] shows some of the negative perceptions that an employer can have, but also gives a glimpse of how to enhance the situation:

“My problem with domestic workers is their low sense of commitment. Sometimes they are not punctual. Sometimes she doesn’t do her job efficiently so I would have to repeat some of the work, after that that costs me a lot of work and effort.

[If] there will be an agreed contract between us, it could be yearly, monthly or daily, but it would include how many hours she works for me, what is the work she should do, how much she will be paid for that work.”

Another particular problem with domestic workers issues is the status of foreign domestic workers in Egypt. This dark area for Egyptian organizations or unions working for domestic workers’ rights remains untreated. Indeed, the perception from the Egyptian domestic workers themselves and from the professionals working on workers’ rights is that foreign housemaids have more protection, better treatment and condition than national housemaids. They think that because foreign (especially Asian housemaids) are generally more educated than Egyptian housemaids the benefit from a better consideration from their “employers”.  Another argument from Egyptian organizations or individuals letting foreign domestic workers out of the claims is that they have support from their embassies, but the truth is that these workers, overwhelmingly women, do not receive any support or help.

The recently established domestic worker Union in Egypt does not accept foreign workers to register because of the previous arguments, and prefer to focus on Egyptian domestic workers. Nevertheless, when interviewed, a lot of foreign housemaids seem to face the same problems than nationals: abusive working hours, nonpayment of the wages from the “employer”, physical and psychological abuses[ii]. For instance, employers would not sign a contract because the employee is illegal (entering the country without working permit or visa), which puts them also in an even more precarious situation.

The ILO report on domestic workers published in January 2013 states:

“[…] domestic work is predominantly carried out by women, many of whom are migrants or members of historically disadvantaged groups. The nature of their work, which by definition is carried out in private homes, means that they are less visible than other workers and are vulnerable to abusive practices.

Despite progress in many countries, extending protection that is comparable to that afforded to other workers to domestic workers remains an urgent task.”[iii]

Indeed, so far only 7 countries (Uruguay, Philippines, Mauritius, Nicaragua, Paraguay, Bolivia and Italy) have ratified the ILO convention on domestic workers adopted in June 2011[iv], recognizing “the economic and social value of domestic work and a call for action to address the existing exclusions of domestic workers from labour and social protection”. An international campaign “12by12” (12 countries ratifying by 2012) aiming at pushing governments to ratify the convention in their law status has been launched by the International Trade Union Confederation and is still ongoing. Al Shehab Institution is the representative of this campaign in Egypt, working for years on strengthening worker’s organizations and awareness raising.