No cover for domestic workers

Union urges government and employers to pay home staff during outbreak

DOMESTIC workers, still waiting for the Constitutional Court to confirm a high court ruling regarding their rights to claim for damages while on duty, are not yet covered for coronavirus infection while at work.

Pinky Mashiane, president of United Domestic Workers of South Africa, said domestic workers remained extremely vulnerable as there were no official measures in place to protect them at this stage.

“Some employers will pay their domestic workers’ medical bills if they get infected, but others are expected to dispute that they had contracted the virus while on duty.

“This is especially in light of them having to travel on public transport to work.”

She urged employers to place their domestic workers on paid leave during the lockdown period.

“Workers depend on their jobs to provide for their families. They obviously cannot work from home and many are experiencing uncertainty about their jobs.”

Those registered for UIF benefits would be able to claim if they lost out on their salaries.

But Mashiane said the problem was that many employers had not yet registered their workers.

While President Cyril Ramaphosa has announced the establishment of a fund to assist the vulnerable during this time, Mashiane said he did not specifically address the plight of domestic workers.

The organisation and other unions, meanwhile, approached the Department of Labour to ask that a special fund be made available to financially assist domestic workers if they were not paid during this time.

A petition, endorsed by Mashiane, set up by coalition unions and other interested parties, was sent to the government, in which they were asking that domestic workers, also be covered during this time by the UIF.

The government was also urged to include those who were not registered or contributing to the fund.

These include unregistered domestic workers and workers in the no-work-no-pay categories.

Mashiane said if this was not possible, they called on the government to set up an emergency fund for this category of workers.

She said she had been inundated during this time by domestic workers who were sent home by their employers, without being paid.

Some also complained that their employers had locked them inside their premises, as they did not want them to come into contact with others who might be infected.

Maria Masemola, who has been working for her Lynnwood, Pretoria East, employers for the past 10 years, was among those who yesterday asked Mashiane for help.

She was on her way to her monthly clinic visit for chronic medication, when her employer refused her permission.

“She said she would rather make me an appointment with a general practitioner, but I am not allowed to go to the clinic and bring the virus home. I am very upset, because to me, this is racist. Who says I will contract it at the clinic, which more black people frequent and not at the doctor?”

Masemola said her employer told her that if she went to the clinic, she had to go straight home to Mamelodi after collecting her medication.

“I went to the clinic and I am now going home. I have no idea whether they will pay me for this time,” she said.