From the 19 – 21 February 2022, the Neil Aggett Labour Studies Unit together with Women in Informal Employment: Globalising and Organizing (WIEGO), the South African Domestic Service and Allied Workers Union (SADSAWU), the Union of Domestic Workers of South Africa (UDWOSA) and Izwi Domestic Workers Alliance hosted the Domestic Workers UIF/COIDA Advocacy Workshop at the Hotel Oribi in Johannesburg. This workshop is the first activity in a new project supported by UN Women with the goal of improving access to social protection for women working in the informal economy.
The COVID19 pandemic has exposed many fault lines in the conditions of work of workers in general, but in particular it has exposed the extent to which women workers in the informal economy are excluded from a range of social protections enjoyed by those working in formal economy. Here you can read about the experiences of women working informally during the Covid-19 crisis of 2020. Although domestic workers in South Africa are legally covered by protection such as the Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF), and recently, the Compensation for Injuries and Diseases Act (COIDA), in reality many workers remain excluded.
The workshop brought together organizations of domestic workers to analyse the problems with the implementation of the UIF, which may also have implications for the implementation of COIDA. Workers then developed a set of key demands to improve implementation, enforcement and monitoring. On the final day, a dialogue was held with officials from the UIF and COIDA Boards. This marks the start of what will be a longer-term conversation with the Department of Employment and Labour to ensure that the rights of domestic workers are made real.
Next steps in the project:
- NALSU and WIEGO will be supporting 4 provincial workshops for domestic workers to take the demands developed by leaders at the national workshop to the ground.
- We will be supporting domestic workers to engage at a national level dialogue supported by the wider UN system on improvements to the UIF and COIDA.
- We will also be hosting another national level workshop focused on improving access to social protection for self-employed workers in the informal economy.