By Agatha Namirembe Arembe.
The International Labour Organization (ILO) defines a domestic as “a wage earner working in a private household, under whatever method and period of remuneration, who may be employed by one or several employers who receive no pecuniary gain from this work”. The domestic worker (household helper or domestic aid) includes any person employed in or about a private residence either wholly or partly in any of the following capacities – cook, house servant, waiter, butler, nurse, baby-sitter, personal servant, bar attendant, footman, chauffer, groom, gardener, lauderer or watch keeper.
In Zimbabwean however, a domestic worker is defined as “a person employed in any private household to render service as a yard/garden worker, cook/house keeper or child-minder or disabled/aged-miner irrespective or whether or not the place of employment is in an urban or rural area”.
In Uganda, the employment act does not define a domestic worker. However, a specific definition of a domestic worker almost similar to that of the ILO had been provided under the repealed employment Act. The definition under the Act was wider than the ILO definition to the extent that it included a valet, washer man and groom but excluded a launderer, a category that is included in the ILO definition” This therefore describes a domestic work in Uganda.
It should be noted, however that during the first post-independence era of 1962-1971, high income – earning employers, mainly Europeans, continued to hire domestic workers, especially men, since they paid more competitively. These were mainly teachers, local Chiefs, Administrators and Priests who also employed paid domestic workers as well as “helpers”. Helpers were young boys or girls who were paid in kind in terms of clothing, school fees, shelter and so on. The practice of hiring helpers was also common among Africans who often had children of their relatives and friends placed under their care.
It was, however, during the same period, specifically from the 1970s, that women began migrating into towns to work. Such women mainly widows, divorcees and spinsters who were desperate and could be employed at a low pay. Women eventually forced their way into urban areas in order to free male labour from this seemingly unproductive sphere of employment – domestic service but also to engage women in some form of employment rather than being a public nuisance and working as prostitutes or beer brewers and sellers. Women’s joining the domestic labour market marked a major shift in the nature of domestic work. Domesic work became de-skilled in the sense that no special skills were required – anyone could become a domestic worker. While domestic service was perceived as a form of wage labour and as public employment during colonialism when men dominated it,it was relegated to the domestic arena when women joined it. Paradoxically, although men continue to do similar work in public places such as hotels, restaurants and bars, they are better paid than women.
Today because of a very high rate of unemployment many people specially wome are engaged in domestic work. These include young females aged between 12 and 18 who work as baby seaters (House maids) for those who work in Government and private sector. According to the Uganda Bureau of Statistics 2018 ■
