Domestic assistants to have more security

Pg 11. Saturday Jan. 29/08

Story: Rebecca Quaicoe Duho
People who employ the services of young girls serving as domestic assistants or ‘maid servants’ in homes will soon have rules and regulations to formalise the employment relationship between them and their employees.
A document, which among other things seeks to begin a process of regularising the work of such girls and also ensure that they are not exploited by their employers, has been presented to the Ministry of Manpower, Youth and Employment in Accra.
That initiative follows the launch of a fact sheet by the Deputy Minister for Manpower, Youth and Employment (responsible for Social Welfare), Mrs Akosua Frema Osei Opare, in April, 2007, to regulate the contractual needs of domestic assistants to ensure that their rights are not trampled upon.
The document, which outlines the terms of contract, wages and benefits, maximum working hours, rest and leave periods, rights at work, enforcement and the responsibilities of the domestic assistants, is to be considered and incorporated into the Labour Act, 2003 (Act 651) as a subsidiary legislation after it had been forwarded to the Attorney-General’s Department for consideration.
Those who propounded the document, the Leadership and Advocacy for Women in Africa (LAWA-Ghana) Alumnae Incorporated, presented the proposal to the ministry at a programme in Accra where it disseminated its report findings on its advocacy project on the rights of domestic assistants in five regions, namely the Greater Accra, Central, Eastern, Western and Volta.
Formerly, there were no contractual agreement between some domestic workers and their employees and so most of them were not sent to school; they were on call from dawn till dusk and were not paid for their services.
Giving testimonies on how the fact sheet, which comprised of a contractual agreement, has helped change her life, a domestic assistant from the Western Region said her parents could not afford to continue catering for her, although she had completed primary and needed to enrol in a junior high school.
She was, therefore, given out as a domestic assistant. She said she was helping her employer to prepare porridge for sale.
She had to wake up as early as 3 a.m. to help in the preparation of the porridge as well as ensure that it was all sold out before she could go to school.
Although she was academically good, her role affected her academic performance but with the signing of the contractual agreement between her and her employer through the LAWA-Ghana team she was allowed to have enough rest and that had improved her performance in school.
The Chairperson of LAWA-Ghana, Ms Sheila Minka-Premo, who read the report, called for legal reforms which included the passage of regulations which would provide for the specific and unique employment situations of domestic workers in general and domestic assistants in particular.
The report, which was sponsored by the Right and Voice Initiative (RAVI), also called for the amendment of section 42 of the Criminal Code, 1960 (Act 29) as amended to address the legal justification for the physical abuse of adolescent domestic assistants.
Ms Minka-Premo said although the labour law existed, it did not protect the rights of domestic assistants and therefore most of them were abused in homes.
She cited Zimbabwe as one country that had enacted comprehensive legislation on domestic assistants and called on Ghana to follow the international trend to enact a law that would protect domestic assistants — who were mostly young girls — from abuse, rape and defilement.
She said as women rights activists, LAWA-Ghana was aware that Ghana had signed several human rights instruments that required the state to ensure the rights of all workers, including females working in homes and, therefore, there was the need to advocate for the improvement of their rights.
A representative from the Attorney-General’s Department, Ms Ethel Appiah, in a remark, assured LAWA-Ghana of the department’s readiness to support the incorporation of the document into the Labour Act.
Reacting to some of the accounts as presented by some domestic assistants who were present, Ms Appiah said there was a loophole in the Labour Law, which needed to be filled to cover their line of work.
The Deputy Minister of Manpower, Youth and Employment, Ms Frema Osei Opare, who was represented by the acting Director of the Department of Social Welfare, Mrs Margaret Kutsoati, said although the country had a good labour law, the challenge was how to reach out to workers in the informal sector.
She promised that LAWA-Ghana would offer the ministry its full support to ensure that the document was widely circulated and accepted.