New laws lift cost of house helps beyond many homes
Immaculate Moraa (left) a househelp in Tudor is comforted by Ms Zaituni Hassan after she was roughed up her employer five years ago. The Labour minister has published new rules to guide hiring of househelps. File
New regulations governing employment of domestic workers have been published, setting the stage for one of the biggest labour market shake-ups that could make the househelp a preserve of a few rich households.
Labour minister John Munyes published the legal notice 14 days ago, more than doubling the salaries of domestic workers besides introducing stringent conditions that would cost employers more than Sh20,000 to fully comply with.
A key plank of the regulations is the setting of minimum monthly salaries an employer can pay a domestic worker in every major town, compulsory weekly offs and overtime compensation.
The legal notice number 64 of June 10 sets Sh7,586 as the minimum wage an employer can pay a resident domestic servant in Nairobi besides the mandatory weekly 48 hour break.
Failure to grant the break leaves the employer with the punitive option of paying the househelp at the rate of Sh365 per day or an additional Sh3,000 a month.
That, together with the basic salary of Sh7,586, means domestic workers who do not get two days off a week will earn not less than Sh10,000 a month – nearly matching the pay of many low-cadre workers in government and the private sector.
Any employer found in breach of the new rules risks serving a jail term of three months or a fine of Sh50,000 or both.
The regulations, to come into force in the next 12 months, are in line with the stringent International Labour Organisation (ILO) proposals aimed at improving the working conditions for those employed in the informal economy.
Kenya has an estimated two million domestic workers, mostly based in towns.
Kenya has some of the weakest laws governing employment of domestic workers such as househelps and gardeners.
Trade unionists expect the government to enact the necessary laws that would effectively ratify the ILO guidelines that also offer domestic workers a legal framework to demand minimum wages, employment contracts, deductions for pension and medical care, among other work benefits.
“We have been working closely with Ministry of Labour and expect the process of enacting the necessary laws to start by year-end,” said Mr Albert Njeru, the secretary general of the Kenyan Union of Domestic, Hotel, Educational Institutions, Hospitals and Allied Workers (KUDHEIHA).
Besides the legal notice, the Labour minister is expected to draft a Bill for passing by Parliament making the ILO provisions part of Kenyan laws.
The new rules are expected to drive up the cost of hiring domestic workers and shake-up the labour market to its core.
Women are especially expected to bear the brunt of the new laws that could force them into the European-style mode of operation in which they have to be out of work for up to three years in the event that they have a baby.
“The enforcement of a minimum wage for domestic workers will lead to an upward adjustment of salaries in other pay grades,” Prof Joseph Kieyah, an analyst at Kenya Institute of Public Policy Research and Analysis (Kippra), said.
KUDHEIHA said less than 1,000 domestic workers — mostly working for diplomatic missions, government agencies, and wealthy households — are paid the minimum wage.
Most households pay domestic workers a salary of less than Sh5,000. The bulk of the workers are drawn from rural areas and have only basic education or are illiterate.
The latest guidelines show that the minimum wage for domestic workers have risen from Sh6,743 last year to Sh7,586, a 12.5 per cent increase.
Employers will also make contributions to the statutory pension (NSSF) scheme and medical cover (NHIF) of Sh200 and Sh320 per month respectively.
The immediate pressure for upward adjustment of wages is set to be felt among drivers, secretaries, messengers, and watchmen whose minimum wage is in the neighbourhood of that proposed for domestic workers but who are relatively more educated and lack extra benefits enjoyed by the domestic employees.
“We are likely to see employers fire a significant number of domestic and other types of workers as their staff costs go up,” Prof Kieyah said.
While the law risks depressing new employment opportunities in the sector, it promises to ramp up earnings for the workers and raise domestic work to a professional career after decades of operating on social relations.
The ILO convention states that hours of work should be “reasonable”, with at least 24 hours of consecutive rest every week, and that workers should be paid in cash at least once a month and have the right to collective bargaining.
The contracts binding the workers and employers must also detail the type of work to be performed, normal hours of work, the annual leave period which will be paid for, and procedures for job termination. ILO says domestic workers leaving the country to take up foreign jobs must sign binding and detailed employment contracts beforehand, a move that could stem exploitation and human rights abuses that Kenyan workers have suffered abroad after being lured with lucrative job offers that turn out to be false. “National laws and regulations shall require that migrant domestic workers who are recruited in one country for domestic work in another receive a written job offer, or contract of employment that is enforceable in the country in which the work is to be performed, addressing the terms and conditions of employment,” the ILO says.
Bureaus supplying domestic workers to households and institutions are expected to be a big beneficiary as the recruitment in the sector gets more professional. The bureaus have cut a niche for themselves supplying middle-class households with domestic workers but could soon tap into the lower-end market.
On a socio-economic side, the enforcement of the higher remuneration and better employment terms could in particular reduce the number of mothers in active employment as the cost of hiring househelps to look after babies rises.
In the US, for instance, nannies earn an average of between Sh68,000 and Sh386,000 per month, and their high remuneration is one of the major factors making mothers there to take a break from employment to look after their babies.
Analysts further question the fairness of enforcing a minimum wage for domestic workers most of who have limited education and enjoy a pack of freebies, including food and accommodation.
The enforcement of the law is also expected to face hurdles given the fact that most domestic workers are relatives in the households they serve, making it difficult to draw the line between professional roles and social relations or obligations.
As such, the enforcement of the new labour rules is likely to focus more on institutional employers and wealthy households. The majority of urban families, regardless of their income, rely on house helps to cope with domestic chores, including taking care of babies.
