End to a “historical debt”. The Council of Ministers has approved this Tuesday the recognition of the unemployment benefit for domestic workers, as the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, announced on Monday.
The Royal Decree-Law for the improvement of working conditions and social security for domestic workers, as its technical name is, “puts an end to an absolutely unacceptable injustice”, acknowledged Sánchez at the inauguration of the political course in Moncloa.
The text, prepared in contact with trade union organizations and the platforms of domestic workers, seeks to equate the working and Social Security conditions of family domestic workers to those of other workers employed by others. As recalled from the Ministry of Labor and Social Economy, “domestic workers are no longer the only labor group that lacked protection in a situation of unemployment despite the fact that most have part-time and intermittent employment relationships, which often end suddenly due to the death of their employers and with a special dismissal regime that allowed arbitrary and untimely dismissals without any type of compensation”.
It should be remembered that all employed workers subject to the General Social Security Scheme (part of the Special System for Domestic Employees) have access to unemployment benefits except, until now, for this feminized group.
It will be mandatory to contribute for unemployment and Fogasa from October 1
Equality with employed persons both in the field of the termination system of the employment relationship and in that of the unemployment benefit is not the only right guaranteed by the regulation. From now on, domestic workers will be guaranteed health and safety protection just like any other worker, a fundamental right that corresponds to all people.
In addition, they will have coverage in the field of salary guarantee in cases of insolvency or insolvency of employers.
With the new law in force, it will be mandatory to contribute to unemployment and to the Salary Guarantee Fund (Fogasa) from October 1. So that these contributions do not imply an economic overexertion for employers, they will be entitled to a bonus of 80% in business contributions to the unemployment contribution and to Fogasa in this Special System.
Apart from this new bonus, the contribution for common contingencies corresponding to this Special System is maintained. In addition, the Second Vice President and Minister of Labour, Yolanda Díaz, recalled during the press conference after the Council of Ministers, the bonus brackets above 20% will be increased, depending on the composition of the household and also on the income and wealth levels, which will increase the number of beneficiaries. The requirements of these bonuses will be established by regulation, they remember from her department.
End to dismissal without cause and obligations also in part-time
With the new royal decree-law, employers will assume the obligations in terms of contributions for workers who provide their services also part-time, for less than 60 hours/month, eliminating the possibility that it is the workers who request directly your affiliation, registrations, cancellations and data variations.
In addition, the contract will have to be signed in writing in all cases, it is no longer allowed to be verbal.
The new norm also eliminates the figure of withdrawal, which allowed dismissal without cause “and, therefore, without the guarantees of dismissal for such situations by allowing domestic workers to be dispensed with without justifying any cause,” they point out from Labor. Thus, from now on, the reasons that may lead to the termination of the contract with the employees must be proven, thus extending the protection against dismissal.
gender perspective
Díaz has taken advantage of the intervention to claim that Spain is from today “a better country” after criticizing that “in the first third of the 21st century” these measures are still being approved. In an overview of the group, the vice president recalled that of the more than 373,000 domestic workers, only 17,000 are under 30 years of age, to indicate that in addition to being feminized (women represent 95% of workers) it is a group aged in which 44% is made up of foreign workers.
In this sense, the Government will continue to pursue that the group of domestic workers ceases to be precarious, Díaz has assured to describe the norm as “transversal, inclusive, feminist and social”.
The approval of the rule comes 189 from the International Organization of Workers (ILO) that allows domestic workers to collect unemployment like other workers. The ILO recognized 11 years ago the contribution of the group to the global economy.
This step was taken after in February, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) that excludes from unemployment benefits a profession that is almost entirely carried out by women. Precisely because of this gender bias, the ruling determined that exclusion constitutes indirect discrimination based on sex in access to Social Security benefits.
The Government has also announced that it will develop training and accreditation policies for domestic employees dedicated to the care of people who are part of the domestic and family sphere and undertakes to create a study commission with a gender perspective to put an end to the deficiencies in the protection of the group against occupational diseases linked to the work they perform.
Díaz has also indicated that action will be taken on workplace harassment in this sector.