Only 27.4% of domestic workers in SC are formal

The formalization of domestic workers was an advance that guaranteed countless rights to the class, but not even the CLT (Consolidation of Labor Laws) managed to reduce the burden of the role that weighs on the portion that is the majority in this group, women – who live at double shift, dividing between care inside and outside the home.

The number of domestic workers with a formal contract in SC does not even reach 30% – Photo: Secom-SC/Reproduction/ND

PEC das Domésticas

The promulgation of Constitutional Amendment 72 – popularly known as PEC das Domésticas – established important rights for the category such as: maternity pay, sickness benefit and work accident benefit, in addition to the weekly working hours set at 44 hours per week (8 hours per day).

Other achievements with the PEC:

• Work and Social Security Card: duly noted, with the employer’s details, specifying the date of admission, adjusted salary and conclusion of a fixed-term contract, if applicable.
• Salary, salary irreducibility and salary equality: In addition to being legally assured, its intentional retention constitutes a crime. Irreducibility is guaranteed (except as provided for in collective conventions or agreements) and salary equality is also prohibited, and differences in salaries, performance of duties and admission criteria based on sex, age, color or marital status are also prohibited.
• Remuneration for night work: payment of nighttime bonus to domestic employees who work at night, meaning that which is carried out from 10pm on one day to 5am on the following day. Remuneration for night work must be increased by at least 20% over the daytime hourly rate.
• Vacation: annual period of 30 days and remunerated at least 1/3 more than the normal salary, after each 12-month period of service provided to the same person or family, counting from the date of admission (acquisition period).
• Transportation vouchers: when using means of urban, intercity or interstate public transport with characteristics similar to urban ones, to travel home/work and vice versa.
• FGTS (Service Time Guarantee Fund): CCFGTS Resolution No. 780, of September 24, 2015, defined that, as of October 2015, the domestic employer is obliged to collect the FGTS from his domestic employee, equivalent to 8% of the value of the remuneration paid to him. .
• Retirement: The domestic employee is entitled to pensions based on contribution time, age and disability.

Real life

In the case of Leandra Lacerda, 49 years old, formalization helped to secure her after an accident suffered in August 2019, on the way to work. Leandra has been a union member of Sintradom (Domestic Workers Union of Chapecó and Region) since 2007 and currently holds the position of president of the organization.

“I suffered an accident at work in 2019 and I’m still away from work, but my card is signed, it was always signed as a domestic worker, even though I didn’t have all my rights”, he recalls.

• Even without being, in theory, at the workplace during the accident, Leandra was supported by article 21 of Law No. 8,213/91, which considers the accident “on the route from the residence to the workplace or from there to that place, whatever the means of transportation, including a vehicle owned by the insured”.

The worker completed high school and began her professional life at the age of 16, working as a nanny.

“The PEC for domestic workers had a huge impact on our lives, guaranteeing some rights that, until then, we did not have, such as the 13th salary, the FGTS, which until 2015 was optional, and unemployment insurance. We fight for more rights, because ours are still not equivalent to those of other workers”, adds the union president.

Leandra is one of thousands of domestic workers in Santa Catarina. In total, the state has 164 thousand domestic workers, but only 45 thousand of them are registered with a formal contract, according to data from the quarterly National Household Sample Survey (PNAD Contínua) from IBGE (Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics), from 2023 . See the numbers:

1st quarter of 2023

• 153 thousand domestic workers: 46 thousand (with a formal contract) and 106 thousand (without a formal contract)

2nd quarter of 2023

• 147 thousand domestic workers: 43 thousand (with a formal contract) and 103 thousand (without a formal contract)

3rd quarter of 2023

• 154 thousand domestic workers: 45 thousand (with a formal contract) and 110 thousand (without a formal contract)

4th quarter of 2023

• 164 thousand domestic workers: 45 thousand (with a formal contract) and 119 thousand (without a formal contract)

Profile of domestic workers in Brazil

Historian and professor at UFSC (Federal University of Santa Catarina) Glaucia Fraccaro, says that the category has always had a smaller proportion of men compared to the number of women.

“More than 90% of the category of domestic workers are women and more than 60% are black women, so we know that this work, nowadays, is much more performed by them”, explains the specialist.

Unpaid work

Within their own homes, women are still the ones who do most of the so-called unpaid work – which includes domestic activities and caring for other family members, especially children.

Data from the 2022 IBGE Continuous PNAD show that women spend 21h18 per week on unpaid work, the equivalent of 3h per day. Men only occupy 11h42 a week, 1h40 a day.

“To resolve this large backlog of work that is done exclusively by women, it is essential that there is a commitment, both from the state, companies, the private sector and family members. So that this is not just a task for women, this large body of work needs to be shared”, points out historian Glaucia Fraccaro.

In April this year, the SNCF (National Secretariat for Care and Family) of the MDS (Ministry of Social Development) announced that Brazil is working on drafting a proposal for a National Care Policy and a National Care Plan, which provide for tackling the social inequalities, including gender.

• According to PNAD figures, approximately 31% of women interrupt their search for work due to domestic work and care at home.

The documents are scheduled for delivery in May this year and are part of the discussions of the 20 main economies in the world, in the G20.