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Tài liệu Chính sách phúc lợi cho lao động nội trợ tại thành phố hồ chí minh

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MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING UNIVERSITY OF ECONOMICS, HO CHI MINH CITY --------------------------FULBRIGHT ECONOMICS TEACHING PROGRAM NGUYEN THU HA WELFARE POLICY FOR DOMESTIC WORKERS IN HO CHI MINH CITY, A CASE STUDY IN TAN BINH DISTRICT Public Policy Major Code: 603114 MASTER OF PUBLIC POLICY THESIS ADVISOR Dr. JONATHAN R. PINCUS HO CHI MINH CITY - 2011 CONTENTS CERTIFICATION ..................................................................................................................... i ACKNOWLEDGEMENT........................................................................................................ ii ABSTRACT .............................................................................................................................. iii ABBREVIATIONS .................................................................................................................. iv LIST OF FIGURES .................................................................................................................. v LIST OF TABLES ................................................................................................................... vi CHAPTER 1 - INTRODUCTION........................................................................................... 1 1.1. Problem statement ............................................................................................................ 1 1.2. Research questions of the study ....................................................................................... 2 1.3. The object, scope and purpose of the study ..................................................................... 3 1.4. Research Methods ............................................................................................................ 4 1.5. The structure of the study................................................................................................. 4 CHAPTER 2 - LITERATURE REVIEW .............................................................................. 5 2.1. Relevant Concepts ............................................................................................................ 5 2.2. Theoretical background .................................................................................................... 6 2.2.1. Demand for domestic workers in Vietnam ................................................................ 6 2.2.2. Supply of domestic workers in Vietnam ................................................................... 7 2.2.3. Theoretical background ............................................................................................. 8 2.3. Empirical studies .............................................................................................................. 8 2.3.1. The number of domestic workers all over the world ................................................. 8 2.3.2. The situation of domestic workers........................................................................... 10 2.3.3. Policies to protect the rights of domestic workers................................................... 11 2.4. Conclusion...................................................................................................................... 12 CHAPTER 3 - RESEARCH METHODS ............................................................................. 13 3.1. The purpose of the survey .............................................................................................. 13 3.2. Subjects of the survey .................................................................................................... 13 3.3. Survey sample size and sampling methods .................................................................... 14 3.3.1. Sample size .............................................................................................................. 14 3.3.2. Methodology............................................................................................................ 14 3.4. Data collection instruments ............................................................................................ 14 3.5. Limitations of the survey method .................................................................................. 15 CHAPTER 4 - SURVEY RESULTS ..................................................................................... 17 4.1. Characteristics of domestic workers .............................................................................. 18 4.1.1. Gender of DWs ........................................................................................................ 18 4.1.2. Age of DWs ............................................................................................................. 18 4.1.3. Education ................................................................................................................. 19 4.1.4. Family status ............................................................................................................ 20 4.1.5. How DWs find jobs ................................................................................................. 21 4.1.6. Years working as domestic worker ......................................................................... 22 4.2. DWs’ current job ............................................................................................................ 23 4.2.1. Domestic chores ...................................................................................................... 23 4.2.2. Working hours ......................................................................................................... 24 4.2.3. Length of doing the current job ............................................................................... 26 4.2.4. Working conditions ................................................................................................. 26 4.2.5. Income and expenditure .......................................................................................... 28 4.2.6. Health and Medical Care ......................................................................................... 30 4.2.7. Days off, leisure time and entertainment activities ................................................. 32 4.2.8. Relationship with employers ................................................................................... 33 4.2.9. Social contact........................................................................................................... 35 4.3. Legal awareness of DWs ................................................................................................ 36 4.4. Dishonesty of DWs ........................................................................................................ 36 4.5. Conclusion...................................................................................................................... 37 CHAPTER 5 - DISCUSSION ................................................................................................ 38 5.1. Irregular working hours.................................................................................................. 38 5.2. Problems adopting labor contracts ................................................................................. 39 5.3. It is difficult to control issues relevant to DWs.............................................................. 40 5.3.1. Exploitation of domestic workers ............................................................................ 40 5.3.2. Employers’ risks ...................................................................................................... 41 5.3.3. The existence of child labor .................................................................................... 41 5.4. “This is not a big problem” ............................................................................................ 42 5.5. Asymmetric information ................................................................................................ 42 5.6. Lack of the participation of labor unions in protecting DWs ......................................... 43 5.7. Legal protections for domestic workers ......................................................................... 44 5.8. Conclusion...................................................................................................................... 44 CHAPTER 6 - POLICY RECOMMENDATIONS ............................................................. 46 6.1. Recommendations for employers ................................................................................... 46 6.2. Recommendations for the Government ......................................................................... 46 6.2.1. Support for establishing companies that provide domestic service......................... 46 6.2.2. Issue the Decree guiding domestic services ............................................................ 47 6.2.3. Strengthen propaganda and education to improve legal awareness of laborers and employers .......................................................................................................................... 47 6.2.4. Establish Unions to protect DWs ............................................................................ 47 CHAPTER 7 - CONCLUSION ............................................................................................. 49 7.1. Conclusion...................................................................................................................... 49 7.2. Limitations and distributions of the study ...................................................................... 50 REFERENCES........................................................................................................................ 51 APPENDIX .............................................................................................................................. 55 i CERTIFICATION I certify that I wrote this thesis myself. I certify that the study has not been submitted for any other degrees. I certify that any help received and all sources used have been acknowledged in this thesis with the best of my knowledge. The study does not necessarily reflect the views of the Ho Chi Minh City Economics University or Fulbright Economics Teaching Program. Author Nguyen Thu Ha ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENT I would like to express my deep gratitude to my parents and brother who always encourage me in my life, my studying and my career. I would like to express my sincere appreciation to my advisor, Dr. Jonathan R. Pincus, for the continuous support of my study. With rich knowledge, experiences, patient, motivation and enthusiasm, his guidance helped me in all the time of research and writing of this thesis. Besides my advisor, I am grateful to Ms. Dinh Vu Trang Ngan for thoughtful and valuable comments on the survey and the early version of my work. I would like to thank to all teachers, librarians, laboratory assistants in Fulbright Economics Teaching Program, who have helped and retransmitted a lot of their knowledge and experience to me. I am indebted to many of my relatives, classmates and friends in class MPP3 who supported me to conduct the survey. This thesis would not have been possible without their assistances. Last but not least, I would like to thank to all my friends, especially Ms. Nguyen Thi Thuy Giang, Mr. Ta Viet Bac, Mr. Duong Tuan Anh, Ms. Nguyen Huong Giang, Ms. Dang Thi Tuyet Nhung, Ms. Ngo Hai Thanh, Ms. Vo Thi Hoang Oanh, Ms. Nguyen Thi Hong Loan, and Ms. Bui Thi Phuong Thao who helped and motivated me in performing the study. Nguyen Thu Ha Ho Chi Minh City – April, 2011 iii ABSTRACT This study analyzes practical issues about domestic workers in Ho Chi Minh City, which is based on the theory that domestic workers today are working in bad working condition with low wages, long working hour and face a range of exploitation, abuse, vulnerability and discrimination. We conducted a survey to examine the situations of domestic workers in Tan Binh District of Ho Chi Minh City. We figured out that in this district the exploitation, discrimination and sexual abuse exist but is not common. And because of asymmetric information, employers become victims of dishonest domestic workers when they hire them. The market still lacks companies that offer trusted domestic workers and organizations who act to protect domestic worker welfare. Therefore, the effective policy recommendations to better these situations are issuing realistic laws to control this market accompanied by actions to implement it such as strengthening the propaganda and education activities in poor areas, supporting the establishment of domestic service companies, and the role of the Women’s Unions in propaganda to change perceptions of both workers and employers. Key words: Domestic workers, exploitation, abuse, vulnerability, discrimination, domestic service companies, Women’s Union. iv ABBREVIATIONS DWs : Domestic workers HCMC : Ho Chi Minh City NIS : National Institution of Statistic ILO : The International Labor Organization TBD : Tan Binh District USA : The United States of America v LIST OF FIGURES Figure 4-1: Gender of DWs ...................................................................................................... 18 Figure 4-2: Number of DWs in groups of age .......................................................................... 19 Figure4-3: Highest certificate of education of DWs ................................................................. 20 Figure 4-4: Family status of domestic workers ....................................................................... 21 Figure 4-5: Job status of domestic workers' spouses ................................................................ 21 Figure 4-6: Years working as domestic workers ...................................................................... 22 Figure 4-7: The length that domestic workers do the current job ............................................. 26 Figure 4-8: Health of DWs in the sample ................................................................................. 30 vi LIST OF TABLES Table 1-1: Subjects of the study ................................................................................................. 3 Table 3-1: Subjects of the survey ............................................................................................. 13 Table 4-1: How DWs are recruited ........................................................................................... 21 Table 4-2: Number of DWs provided work by a domestic worker supplier in the past ........... 22 Table 4-3: Works in day of domestic workers. ......................................................................... 24 Table 4-4: Working hours of domestic workers ....................................................................... 25 Table 4-5: Working conditions of DWs ................................................................................... 27 Table 4-6: Meals of DWs.......................................................................................................... 27 Table 4-7: Income of DWs in the sample ................................................................................. 28 Table 4-8: Expenditure of DWs in the sample ......................................................................... 29 Table 4-9 : Reward for DWs on Tet holiday ............................................................................ 29 Table 4-10: Bosses' treatment when DWs get ill ...................................................................... 30 Table 4-11: Person who pays DWs medical expense ............................................................... 31 Table 4-12: Medical Insurance with DWs ................................................................................ 31 Table 4-13: Agree with one day off in a week ......................................................................... 32 Table 4-14: Activities of DWs at rest time ............................................................................... 32 Table 4-15: How DWs use the telephone ................................................................................. 35 1 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 1.1. Problem statement The role of women in Vietnamese society is changing quickly. As women have entered the labor force and set up businesses, demand for domestic workers (DWs) has become very large. DWs have a big role in doing housework to ensure that the activities of the family can take place smoothly. The domestic worker is also indispensable in household business. Unfortunately, the growth of domestic service is accompanied by the widespread abuse of labor, exploitation of maids, especially children. In many countries around the world, including Vietnam, domestic work has not been regarded as a professional occupation and there is no official legal framework to protect this workforce. In Vietnam, especially in big cities, the shortage of DWs is a frequent topic of discussion. Housemaids are a hot topic in the daily newspapers. Two prominent examples are the stories of Nguyen Hao Anh in Ca Mau province and Nguyen Thi Binh in Hanoi. They were victims of the inhumane torture over more than ten years at the hands of their employers (Huynh Hai, Ngo Nguyen, 2010), (Huong Vu, Duy Hien, 2010). These cases shocked the public for a long time and were a warning signal about the exploitation of domestic workers. Currently, domestic service is not considered a formal job, and there is no specific agency assigned to monitor and manage this group (Than Hoang, 2010). There are still no official data on DWs, only case material about abuse and exploitation of DWs reported in the media. As reported by the ILO in 2010 at the International Labor Conference, Manuela Tomei, Chief of the ILO’s Conditions of Work and Employment program, Social Protection Sector said that domestic work absorbs a significant proportion of the workforce, ranging between four to ten percent of total employment in developing countries and up to 2.5 percent of total employment in industrialized countries (ILO, 2010). In Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) in 2006, there were an estimated 2,162 children in domestic work (ILO, 2006). In fact, children are a small part in this workforce, and the total is much greater. 2 DWs have common characteristics including their origins in poor families, low educational attainment, and a lack of occupational skills. Their job is often doing housework or assisting household businesses. They often do not have labor contracts, but only a verbal agreement with employers. Between the employees and the employers, there are no legal obligations. The consequence of this is that conflicts often occur. Because there is no basis for settlement, workers are subject to unfair treatment or abuse. On the other hand, employers also have to deal with the risks of dishonesty among DWs or other risks to their families. The Vietnamese Labor Code recognizes domestic service as a profession and DWs have the same rights and benefits as employees in other industries.1 However, the legislation can only be applied to those who have labor contracts. In fact, most DWs work under informal arrangements. Both domestic workers and employers are not aware of this. Therefore, interest in contracts and benefits of contracting are still limited. It is difficult for DWs to protect their rights under the law. Faced with this urgent situation, the government is preparing to issue a decree guiding what should be done to protect DWs. The contents of the decree will focus on such issues as the work of assistants, wages, working hours, working conditions, welfare policies and other relevant issues. Welfare issues for helpers are a topic of intense public interest and require timely intervention to ensure the rights of workers. Motivated by this situation, the present research contributes to providing a more practical basis for drafting the planned government decree on DWs, and investigates ways to make the decree more feasible in its implementation. 1.2. Research questions of the study This study attempts to answer two research questions as follows: 1. Why do DWs not have the same working conditions and benefits as employees in the formal sector? 1 2 Labor Code of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, June 23, 1994 as amended April 2, 2002, National Assembly. “Snowball sampling” referred at http://www.experiment-resources.com/snowball-sampling.html 3 In order to answer this central question, some following sub –questions should be asked: - What are the characteristics of DWs and their working conditions? - What welfare policies are available to them? - Are they receiving the benefits that they are entitled to? - What are the major reasons that they do not receive equal treatment? 2. What should be done to improve the welfare of domestic workers? 1.3. The object, scope and purpose of the study The subjects studied are listed in the table below: Table 1-1: Subjects of the study Objects / Job Doing house work Taking care of children, the elderly or the disabled Assistant for family business Part-time domestic workers Girl under 15 years old X X X X Boy under 15 years old X X X X Women X X X X Men X X X X The study concentrates on the empirical facts of domestic work in Tan Binh District, Ho Chi Minh City, and the perceptions of these DWs. Although we cannot assume that this group is statistically representative of all DWs in the city, the intention is not to sample systematically. We take Tan Binh District as a case that will help us to understand some of the issues confronting DWs. Conclusions concerning the population parameters will have to await a larger, city or nation-wide study, which is clearly beyond the scope of the present paper. There are still no official data on DWs in Vietnam, only case material about abuse and exploitation of DWs in the media. No specific agency has responsibility for monitoring the situation of DWs. That is the reason why many contradictory opinions about this problem exist. Therefore, the researcher will conduct a survey to collect data. The 4 interviews and data from the survey will be used to explore the real situation of DWs in HCMC. 1.4. Research Methods The study is based on a survey to examine the situation of DWs in Tan Binh District, HCMC. The thesis first will analyze practical issues about DWs in HCMC. As noted above, this is a small survey that cannot make generalizations about all of Vietnam, but is a form of case study. 1.5. The structure of the study The study consists of six chapters. This section belongs to the introductory chapter. Chapter 2 consists of a literature review providing relevant concepts and the theoretical and analytical framework about the welfare of the DWs. Research methods are described in Chapter 3. Chapter 4 consists of the results of the survey and the qualitative analysis of the realities of DWs in Tan Binh District, HCMC. Based on this analysis, Chapter 5 discusses the implications of the findings. Chapter 6 focuses on discussing policy recommendations. Chapter 7 concludes and suggests topics for future research. 5 CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1. Relevant Concepts It is necessary to provide concepts which are relevant to DWs that are used in this study. There is still no universal definition of DWs up to now. In fact domestic workers are often called housemaids, house-help, or house girls. But they mostly perform the same duties in the household (Akinrimisi, 2002). According to Manuela Tomei, Chief of the ILO’s Conditions of Work and Employment program, Social Protection Sector: “Domestic workers may cook, clean, take care of children, the elderly or the disabled, even domestic animals. DWs may work full- or part-time as wage workers for one or more employers. They may also be self-employed with substantial control over the terms of their work, or provide services in individual homes while being paid by licensed institutions. DWs, especially full-time migrant DWs, may also live in the employer’s home” (ILO, 2010). This concept expresses most aspects of DWs, what they do, where they live, how much time they work per day and per week, and how they get their jobs. Domestic worker is an occupational title which should be “domestic service worker” and means “the person managing household affairs as required for the household they serve, including taking care of children, old people, the sick, etc” (Liu Minghui, 2009). Before that, he defined the term domestic worker to mean any person who carries out household work which refers to the services performed in or for a family, including household service, child care, cleaning, cooking, home care, family education and other personal care, as well as taking care of pets and livestock and tending to fields and gardens. This thesis is about the welfare of DWs so it is also initial to provide the definition of welfare. In daily life, it is a commonly understood term which implies mental and physical health, 6 living conditions and happiness. In the study, “welfare policies” for DWs means all policies and activities relevant to DWs that bring them benefits which are besides the wage such as medical care, social insurance, working condition... Besides these two terms, there are some relevant concepts that should be mentioned like employer and household. An employer is a person on which the domestic worker is dependent for staying in the household because he or she is the head of household or the responsible person who hires and supervises the domestic worker. A household can be a single person or a group of persons who live together, who may be related to each other, and who have common arrangements for eating for at least three months in duration (NIS, 2004). 2.2. Theoretical background 2.2.1. Demand for domestic workers in Vietnam With economic development, the demand for and supply of DWs increase quickly. Factors which contribute to the increase in demand for DWs are demographic changes such as the aging population, increasing participation of women in the labor force and the pressure of family life in urban areas (D’Souza, 2001). Vietnam is one of the countries which has the highest proportion of women in the labor force (83 percent) (Tan Duc, 2011). Traditionally in Vietnam domestic chores are carried out by women living in the household. When they expend more time in the labor force, the time to do housework is reduced, therefore, they often employ DWs to replace them in the kitchen or partly take care of their family. The living standards of Vietnamese people are improving gradually and especially in urban areas. The opportunity cost of doing house work is going up because people can get higher incomes when working outside. Urban citizens can pay for DWs with wages that are lower than their opportunity cost of time (Do Huyen My, 2009). Higher incomes allow them to hire a domestic worker to do domestic chores for them. One of main factors contributing to demand for domestic work is the aging population (Bureau for Workers’ Activities-ILO, 2007). There are changes in family structure. Families 7 with two generations are replacing three-generation families. Young couples usually live far from their parents and have to take care of their families and children themselves. And the elderly need someone to care for them. These elements have contributed to rising demand for DWs. 2.2.2. Supply of domestic workers in Vietnam In Vietnam domestic workers are of varying different ages, but for the most part are concentrated in the 15-25 and 40-55 year age groups (Ngoc Bao, 2010). The group 15-25 years old includes girls who have recently entered the labor market, who are unmarried, who have migrated to the city but do not have enough technical expertise to be able to work in other sectors. Women in the group 40-55 years of age are typically married and their children are old enough to take care of themselves. They need money to pay for major needs of the family such as children’s education or building a house. All in these two groups have the same traits including origins in rural areas, and lacking in skills (Ngoc Bao, 2010). DWs are almost all women who want to escape from poverty and who come from rural areas (WIEGO, 2010). In these communities, there is a lack of employment opportunities. In addition, students or other workers who have some free time and want to have extra income also come into this sector as part-time employees. These factors are discussed in detail below. First, migration between rural and urban areas is now easier than before. Thus, people can quickly leave the countryside and go to urban centers to find non-agricultural jobs with the intention of improving their living standards. This is one of factors that increase the labor supply for the city in general and the domestic labor supply as well. Second, in cities, many students are willing to enter the labor market on a part-time basis. They have some free time and they want to have more income. They want to have a job, which does not require skills. That is why they want to be part-time DWs (Ngoc Cuong, 2009). 8 2.2.3. Theoretical background One of the most important avenues for rural people to escape from poverty is wage labor. Access to stable waged employment is a major motivation for rural people to migrate to cities. However, women face discrimination in the labor market owing to a pronounced gender division of labor, in which some jobs are considered “male” and other jobs “female.” In addition, rural women are less likely to have educational qualifications required to get better, more stable jobs. As a result, many rural women rely on the market for DWs. Although this is unregulated, low-paid and inferior work, it is often a better alternative than work available in the location of origin. However, because of their lack of alternatives, and the informal nature of labor contracting, women in domestic work are subject to abuse and exploitation. 2.3. Empirical studies Housemaids have existed for thousands of years. In ancient traditions, every upper class family and some middle class families used to have slaves or nannies to do domestic chores or take care of the elderly, children or disabled people. In the modern, market economy households hire DWs and pay for them. Many studies worldwide have shown that DWs still do not have the same benefits as workers in the formal sector. They may be overworked, treated unfairly, and some cases are subject to sexual abuse or violence. 2.3.1. The number of domestic workers all over the world There are no credible statistics on the number of DWs worldwide. In many countries, they are not considered as workers by national law and they often work in private homes that make it difficult to find them and know about their lives. According to the ILO, domestic work is a significant area of employment and it is estimated that there are over 100 million DWs globally. Many of them are women and migrants (Williams, Tortell and Callister, 2009). Especially widespread in the Middle East, the ILO estimates there are 22 million foreign DWs, a third of which are women. They mainly come from Asian and African countries, including Indonesia, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Ethiopia (IRIN, 2010) . 9 In Vietnam, the number of DWs is increasing quickly, both within the country and abroad. According to statistics of The Bureau of Overseas Labor Management, from 2000-2009, Vietnam sent 231,708 female workers overseas. Taiwan is the top receiving country (61 percent), while 21 percent went to Malaysia and up to four percent to Macao. Women laborers working as DWs accounted for 51 percent (Ngoc Bao, 2010). Indonesia ranks among countries with the highest number of DWs worldwide. According to the National Network on DWs Advocacy of Indonesia, it has 10 million DWs within the country and six million abroad. Many of are subject to abuse and mistreatment. Sam Zarifi, Amnesty International’s Asia Pacific Director of Indonesia, said that about 2.6 million Indonesian DWs lacked access to legal protection (Jakarta Post, February 16, 2011). The situation is not very different in China. In recent years, the domestic service industry in China has grown very rapidly. Nearly 20 million DWs are employed in the domestic service sector. However, the population of children under 14 years of age accounts for 20 percent of urban residents, and fifteen percent are above 60 years of age. Therefore, the demand for domestic service has the potential to grow much more (Liu Minghui, 2009). In India, domestic service makes up one of the country’s largest labor categories, behind only farming and teaching (Wax, 2008). India’s National Domestic Workers’ Movement has more than 3.5 million members (Theckanath, 2010), and the total number of DWs is estimated to be much higher. In industrial countries, the need for DWs has also grown with the rise in the population, because there are more and more elderly, and children need to be looked after by someone who replaces parents for part of the day. In France, in 2006, there were 2.5 million private individuals employed as DWs. A study by the Dutch trade union federation estimates that about 240,000 DWs are illegally employed in the Netherlands. And in Switzerland, there are more than 30,000 DWs. The number of DWs in New York City, USA is estimated at 200,000 people and is 600,000 in New York state. In Africa, the poorest continent of the world, there are also about one million DWs in South Africa (Bureau for Workers’ Activities-ILO, 2007). 10 To sum up, the statistics above show the huge number of DWs all over the world. However, little research has been done on their conditions of life and work, and the policy implications of maintaining such a large and unregulated sector of employment in both developing and industrialized countries. 2.3.2. The situation of domestic workers A Human Rights Watch report published in April 2010 said about domestic workers in Indonesia: “Domestic workers faced a wide range of abuses. Many experienced poor working conditions, such as needing permission to leave the house, a lack of leave days, having their passports taken away and, in some cases, physical and emotional abuse” (IRIN, 2010). The report also noted that access to justice was limited. Simel Esim, a gender expert at the ILO in Beirut, said this situation is because domestic labor is in the home and considered as a private matter. They are dependent on the employer. It is a challenge to monitor their lives in the employer’s house (IRIN, 2010). In Ho Chi Minh City of Vietnam, many DWs are children. Most of them live in their employers’ houses. They have to work from 13 to16 hours a day, with low wages, no days off, depending on employers. They often cannot get in touch with their families, and are cut off contact with the outside world. If they intended to have a boyfriend or husband they are fired (ILO, 2006). It is similar to the situation of child domestic workers in Cambodia (Cambodia National Institute of Statistics, 2003), and Indonesia (Human Right Watch, 2009). Mistreatment and abuse of DWs is a consequence of the lack of knowledge of these DWs about their rights and how to protect themselves. A study of DWs in Thailand concludes: “There are limitations in terms of scope of protection extended to DWs and the actual implementation of such protection. In most cases, both the employers and DWs themselves are not aware of their duties and rights under the Labor Protection Law.” (Boontinand, 2010).
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