Report on domestic workers: ‘3 out of every 10 women subjected to violence’

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Republican People's Party (CHP) Vice Chair for Human Rights Gülizar Biçer-Karaca has prepared a report on domestic workers in Turkey titled "The Trivialized Domestic Work - Invisible Workers."

Biçer-Karaca's report has raised concerns about the problems faced by domestic workers who have been unable to get short time work allowance during the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, work in precarious jobs and experience several violations of rights.

According to the report, three out of every 10 women doing domestic work in Turkey are subjected to sexual, physical violence and mobbing in their workplaces. The report has noted that it is impossible to prove such attacks due to the inviolability of domicile.

The report has also shared the requests expressed by the domestic workers from the Domestic Workers Solidarity Union during an online meeting as well as the solution offers of the main opposition party.

Presenting her motion requesting the inclusion of domestic workers within the scope of the Labor Law as well, Karaca has first expressed the problems discussed during the online meeting with the workers.

Social security, legal framework

First of all, the report has indicated that in the event that the domestic workers not falling within the scope of the Law no. 6311 on Occupational Health Safety have any occupational accidents, their conditions are not considered to be an "occupational disease".

Moreover, as per the related provisions of the Law no. 5510 on Social Insurances and General Health Insurance, several domestic workers are not included in the category of long-term insured on the grounds that this law differentiates between the ones who work in a place for less than 10 days a month and those who work for more than 10 days a month.

Listing the problems with the unlicensed consulting companies as well, the report has underlined that the lack of inspections leads to serious problems, adding that some consulting companies do not abide by the fields of work that the domestic workers want to work in.

The CHP report has also noted that there is no standard regarding the price paid to domestic workers or their working hours.

Reiterating the incidents of violence faced by domestic workers, the report has underlined that domestic workers are unable to exercise their right to take a leave of absence and have a rest adequately.

Accounts of domestic workers

Sharing a series of requests as well, the report has then moved on to quote some statements by domestic workers themselves:

"I have been a domestic worker for 35 years. I have been working since I was 15. They didn't send me to school. My father was a worker of Tekel [a tobacco and alcoholic beverages company].They said that 'girls don't go to school' and didn't let me study. If I had gone to school, I would love to be a teacher or a doctor. I have 11 siblings from my own family.

"I have never worked happily in the last 15 years. My employer of the last seven years and I are now engaged in a lawsuit. They tried to deny me my rights, saying, 'We tried her for a month, but we didn't like her.' All I wanted them to do was to have me registered in the Social Security Institution (SSK). I have worked for 35 years, but I have nothing.

"I could send my son to school only until junior year of high school. Due to the pandemic, we have been having problems beyond belief for the last year. I have no other income than 1-2 places that I go to work."

"If a person is employed as a cleaning worker, she must do cleaning; if she is employed as a babysitter, she must only work as a babysitter. We don't have a job description due to families and consulting companies."

"They tell us to work only with them and for a meagre wage that they set for us themselves and they want us to do it without taking any leave. I say it on behalf of all friends doing domestic work: Believe us: We are of no value. None of the things we do is visible to the eye." (HA/SD)