Date :22.9.2016

Labour Ministry re-works policy for domestic helps to avoid harassment by agencies

While it is not going to be mandatory for domestic workers to register with agencies, employment routed through these agencies will safeguard interest of all parties involved.

NEW DELHI: In an attempt to streamline the process of hiring domestic help throughplacement agencies, the labour ministry is re-working the draft national policy for domestic workers to avoid any harassment to either the employer or domestic help at the hands of these agencies. 

A senior labour ministry official told ET that currently placement agencies charge certain proportion of the domestic worker's salary every month, over and above the one-time fees they charge from the employer for providing such help. 

"We will soon come out with a policy that would make it mandatory for placement agencies to charge a one-time 15-day salary from the domestic help and in turn provide them with social security cover, including medical and health insurance," the official quoted above said on the condition of anonymity. 

According to the official, while it is not going to be mandatory for domestic workers to register with placement agencies and for employers to hire through them, employment routed through these agencies will be well-regulated to safeguard interest of all the three parties involved. 

This should encourage all stakeholders to go through this route. 

"Those employed through placement agencies will enjoy the benefit of higher salary than their peers as well as social security while the employers will get to hire domestic helps whose background check and liability would rest with the placement agencies. Hence, it would be more secure," the official added. 

The reworked proposal is a step down from the earlier policy for hiring of domestic workers under which the government had planned to make it mandatory to hire all help through placement agencies after a written agreement, violation of which would be treated as bonded labourers and therefore liable for punishment. 

"This time, we are not imposing any conditionality on the employer as far hiring domestic help is concerned as it will dampen the overall hiring in the sector. Instead, the idea now is to encourage people to go in for more formal job creation," the official added. 

India currently has estimated three crore domestic workers, including scheme workers, both in the organised and the unorganized sector, who will benefit from the national policy which is under works for more than a year now. 

Out of the country's total workforce of over 400 million, less than 10% are in the formal or organised sector. The majority are in the informal sector, often deprived of minimum wages, leaves and any kind of social security, for themselves or for their families.