Expanding The Public System of Household Assistance: A Pilot Experiment in Slovenia
Expanding The Public System of Household Assistance: A Pilot Experiment in Slovenia
Expanding The Public System of Household Assistance: A Pilot Experiment in Slovenia
1
CONTEMPORARY issues, (2008) Vol. 1, No. 1
UDK: 316.344.7(497.4)
364.65(497.4)
Izvorni znanstveni članak
Primljeno: 12. 12. 2008.
MAJDA HRŽENJAK
Peace Institute, Institute for Contemporary Social and Political Studies, Ljubljana, Slovenia
and demand for paid domestic work. The informal tic workers who sell these services on the black
evidence points to an increase in paid domestic market, and long-term unemployed women who
work, including in East European middle-class are facing social exclusion and poverty, so they
households where it still remains an invisible undertake the work of other women, though
phenomenon. As with regard to Slovenia, during paid, but under undefined working conditions
the past decade, it was possible to observe an and deprived of the rights and duties arising
increase in the supply of, and demand for house- from labor relations. The paper then proceeds
hold cleaning services and childcare, signifying to give a more detailed presentation of the pilot
the type of work that had all but disappeared experiment and the organization of paid family
during the socialist era. Apart from the gendered work in households with small children. Finally,
division of domestic labor and the rapid aging the results of the pilot experiment are put into
of population, the main factor encouraging this perspective through a critical assessment of the
phenomenon is social changes brought about by potential impact of the professionalization and
the capitalist system, particularly long working regulation of paid domestic services as a policy
hours for professionals (including women) and measure for reducing both the social exclusion
the long-term structural unemployment caused of long-term unemployed women and work -
by the restructuring of the economy (Hrženjak, family conflict.
2007). Many of the authors dealing with the is-
The study of the current growth in ir- sue of paid domestic and care work imply that
regular paid domestic work in Slovenia, which the outsourcing of household work is unethical,
is particularly acute in two-career couples with arguing that the practice is uniquely exploitative
children and single-parent families, was carried and that to participate in it is to maintain the op-
out as part of the project The System of House- pressive structures of gender, race and class
hold Assistance (SIPA) within the EQUAL Initia- (Lister at al., 2007; Lutz, 2007). In this paper,
tive of the European Social Fund. The project it is argued that it is not possible to ignore the
was accomplished as a research-application empirical situation which reveals the increasing
project trying to put to the test the idea that the need for domestic help (not only because of the
introduction of a public system of household as- class and gender inequality in sharing domestic
sistance would reduce the work - family conflict work, but also because of the professionalization
in households with pre-school children and en- of work, the introduction of the culture of long
able the creation of new quality workplaces for working days and population aging) and the fact
the difficult-to-employ groups, long-term unem- that an army of unemployed, poor and immigrant
ployed women in particular. Both groups have women already work as domestic workers within
already turned to the black market for a solution. the irregular domestic service market, because
The empirical part of the study consisted of two for them, that is the only means of survival in
questionnaires for two target groups (house- the current system. In contrast to the studies
holds with pre-school children and long-term that examine paid domestic work starting from
unemployed women in the Ljubljana region) that the norms of an ideal society, our point of depar-
were used to gauge the demand for paid domes- ture is the actual empirical situation along with
tic work and the interest to seek employment in the norms of social justice and equality. It should
the area of domestic work. Based on the analy- be emphasized that paid domestic work is not
sis of the questionnaires, a pilot experiment on an unvarying phenomenon, but it constitutes a
paid domestic work was organized, whereby five domain where various social groups meet, vari-
long-term unemployed women were employed ous services are offered and various needs are
for a period of six months in thirty households satisfied. Therefore, a consideration of paid
in Ljubljana. After the six months of the pilot ex- domestic work as a uniform concept would ap-
periment we used quantitative and qualitative pear controversial. It is not possible to apply the
evaluation in both target groups to detect the ad- same evaluation criteria to the purchase of do-
vantages and disadvantages of such a system of mestic services dictated by the lifestyle of rich
paid domestic work. social classes, and that necessitated by disease,
The first part of the paper presents the old age or debility. It is necessary to distinguish
context of the pilot experiment confronting the between the needs of, for example, a single
situations of the two groups of women in Slo mother who decides to hire a childcare service
venia: women who are doubly burdened by pro- on a black market because kindergartens do not
ductive and reproductive labor and hence forced operate in the afternoon or during weekends,
to transfer part of reproductive labor to domes- and the needs of rich couples without children
who hire cleaners to increase their spare time. Slovenia is considered to be a country
Similarly, it is necessary to distinguish between in which private and professional duties are well
the situations of unregistered migrant women, balanced, at least on the level of the relevant
and, for example, that of younger retired women policies. In the research study Combination
who from time to time help young families with Pressure: the Work-Family Balance in European
childcare and household work for the purpose Countries, Slovenia is described as the “Sweden
of social reintegration. This article does not look of the South,” (Van der Lippe, 2006) thanks to
into paid domestic work in general, but into the the available and accessible network of publicly
concrete social context of two concrete social subsidized high quality kindergartens, one year
groups: families with pre-school children and long, 100% paid maternity and parental leaves,
long-term unemployed women in Slovenia. The tax relieves for families with children and recent
aim of the pilot experiment was to contribute to systematic promotion of active fatherhood and
the constructive attempts to overcome the pre- father’s leave. Traditionally, the percentage of
carious situation in the field of domestic service women participating in the labor market has
on the supply and demand side by introducing been high, and women have pursued working
the public subsidized system of paid domestic patterns similar to those pursued by men. The
help for both social groups, thus reinforcing the full-time employment rate for women in Slovenia
welfare state in that respect. The fundamen- is one of the highest in Europe. In 2005, women
tal problems frequently identified in the field of accounted for 61.3% of the active women work-
paid domestic work are irregular live-in forms ing population, which is a figure that exceeds the
(Anderson, 2000), the global care-chain (Ehren- Lisbon target of 60% (European Commission,
reich and Hohschilde, 2003) and the privatiza- 2006). Only 11% of women had part-time jobs in
tion/commodification of care (Williams, in Lutz, 2004, compared to 7.9% men (CEDAW, 2006).
2007). The pilot project presented here introduc- Data on gender structure of employment in dif-
es regulated paid domestic work under live-out ferent groups of occupations show that although
arrangement; it disrupts the global care-chain by the highest share of women is among clerks
engaging long-term unemployed local women, (65,3%), service workers, shop and market work-
and proposes the socialization of domestic work ers (63,8%), it is also considerably high among
through development of public network of agen- professionals (60,2%) (Kanjuo Mrčela, 2006).
cies, rather than its privatization and commodi- In the school year 2007/2008, there were
fication. 811 kindergartens in Slovenia catering for 68%
of all children; of these, 787 were public kinder-
gartens, and 24 were private ones. However,
1. Contextualization of pilot experiment less than one third of 1 - 3 year old children
were enrolled in kindergartens (The Statisti-
1.1. Women combating work/family conflict cal Office of the RS, calculation as of June 30,
2007). These data indicate that, despite of the
In Slovenia, as elsewhere, domestic work adequate network of public kindergartens, par-
is still to a large extent perceived as non-work, or ents with children in the age group 1 - 3 have
as a “labor of love” performed by women, so that problems with childcare, and the insufficient en-
it is not considered a “real” work. Furthermore, rolment capacity of kindergartens is not the only
as work performed within the private sphere, it reason for that. The more likely reasons are a
is not a subject of public interest; it is viewed conviction that a child so young needs domestic
as non-productive work that does not produce care resembling mother’s care as much as pos-
surplus value, but is primarily oriented towards sible, and the reluctance on the part of employ-
consumption and is not paid. The perception that ers to grant sick leaves, which are often needed
domestic work is not work leads to the invisibi by parents with young children in kindergartens.
lity of the double burden shouldered by contem- Purchasing of childcare services on the black
porary women i.e. that of paid productive work market is also stimulated by the fact that a child
within the public sphere, and non-paid reproduc- cannot be admitted to a kindergarten before he/
tive labor within the private sphere. There is a she is 11 months old. However, although parents
saying that behind every successful man there are entitled to a fully-paid childcare leave, given
is a woman. More pertinent to our context would unequal sharing of childcare leaves between
be to say that behind a successful woman there partners, and knowing that many women, par-
is another woman who does domestic work for ticularly entrepreneur and professional women,
her. cannot afford a one-year absence from work,
many need childcare services during the child’s population aging (in 2020, 20% of the population
first year. Furthermore, the kindergartens open- will be over 65) and the fact that more than half
ing hours (6.30 to 17.00) do not meet the needs of the older people who need full care, entirely
of parents who work non-regular working hours, depend on informal social networks, particularly
which is rather a rule than an exception in the their families, the state’s assistance in the care
world servicing a “24-hour society” (Cox, 2006). for the elderly is utterly important, but in Slo
Accordingly, the most frequent arrangement em- venia it is deficient. The care for the elderly and
ployed is informal childcare for children aged 1 the sick is shouldered primarily by women. The
- 3 (grandparents, paid baby-sitters), while most data on the use of sick leave to look after family
children older than 3 receive institutional care in members, either children or the elderly in need
kindergartens (Kanjuo Mrčela in Stropnik, 2004: of special care show that the burden is mostly on
23-24). women - women in Slovenia are six times more
In Slovenia, the care for children and often absent form work than men, due to caring
other members of family needing care is une- for family members (Basis for the Resolution on
qually divided between genders. Childcare leave the National Program for Equal Opportunities for
is predominantly used by women in its entirety. Women and Men).
According to the Ministry of Labor, Family and The empirical research (Hrženjak, 2007)
Social Affairs, in 2006 only 921 men shared the that included 400 households with pre-school
childcare leave with their partners, while in 2007, children in Ljubljana and Maribor showed that
this figure rose to 1,008. The research Parents the support provided by social networks is mainly
between Work and Family shows that only 3-4% limited to parental support. On average, parents
of parents work part-time after the end of child- provide 16 hours a month of help with domes-
care leave; among those, however, 90% are tic work. However, many cannot hope to receive
women (Kanjuo Mrčela and Černigoj Sadar et help from their parents for various reasons: be-
al., 2005). According to the European Commis- cause of geographical distance, or because their
sion (2005) data, women spend 2 hours and 23 parents stay active in old age, or are debilitated,
minutes a day with their pre-school children (un- or the problem is the relationship and the like. In
der 6), while men spend only 56 minutes a day. attempting to reduce the time needed for house-
Household work is also unequally divided work, women continue to resort to, or have been
between genders: women spend 4 hours and 57 returning to, domestic workers to relieve them
minutes doing domestic work, while men spend from the burden of housework at least several
only 2 hours and 39 minutes (Kanjuo Mrčela, hours a week. Yet this conclusion applies only
2005). Households with pre-school children do to women who can afford that financially. Seven-
not receive public assistance with domestic work teen percent of respondents in 400 households
unless they care for an older and sick person as with pre-school children stated that they are al-
well. The Social Security Act (www.mddsz.si) ready hiring domestic services; most of these
contains a provision on family assistance which were women in managerial positions, educated
includes family support services, assistance at women and women still involved in the process
home, and social services. Centers for social of education. The largest percent, 66,2%, hired
work and some other actors (social enterprises) domestic workers for occasional cleaning; 42,6%
are offering domestic help services as part of so- occasionally hired child minders, a further 11,8%
cial care through public work mechanisms en- hired child minders on a daily basis, and 2,9
gaging various target groups of hard-to-employ hired daily domestic help. The rest of the 83% of
persons. This is an important element of social women stated that they would need occasional
policy, but restricted to social care for elderly and cleaning and tidying up services, followed by
disabled people, in an effort to replace institu- ironing and washing services, childcare, cook-
tional protection. The standards in that case re- ing, fetching children from kindergartens and
quire that the employee be a nurse, housewife or assorted other tasks (Hrženjak, 2007). One re-
nurse-attendant. This service comprises domes- spondent said:
tic help, assistance in maintaining personal hy-
giene and assistance in maintaining social con- “I have three children, so we already
tacts. On average, during the first half of 2007, have a lady who helps - usually once a week.
a person providing direct social care for a user That seems to be quite necessary, if you have
did it 16.3 times a month, producing on average a family and a job on top of that. My husband
66.4 minutes of effective work per visit (Smolej also helps; we share work, so usually I under-
et al., 2008). Given the growing trend towards take certain tasks and he others, but there is
always something left undone, so I think that a long-term unemployed person is a person who
third person must be there for general help once has been out of employment for 12 months with-
a week.“ in the period of the last 18 months, or, in case
of persons younger than 25, for 6 months within
Another respondent said: the last 8 months. According to the Employment
Service data, at the end of October 2006, there
“We used to hire students who came to were 81,302 unemployed persons registered
tidy up once a week or once a fortnight. We were with the Service, of these, 44,938 were women.
satisfied, including with the price.” The long-term-unemployed group comprised
40,955 persons, of these, 22,696 were wom-
Therefore, the majority of economically en; 12,117 were older than 40; 9,246 long-term
active women in Slovenia work full-time (rather unemployed women had level I education, and
than, for instance, choosing to work part-time or only around 1,538 had VI or VII educational lev-
take longer breaks in their careers because of el. In Slovenia, 9,966 long-term-unemployed wo
childcare) and they are faced with the traditional men have less than 5 years of employment. The
asymmetrical distribution of domestic and care greatest number of long-term-unemployed wom-
work between partners. Men’s inclusion in the di- en is registered with the Employment Service lo-
vision of labor within the private sphere through cal branches in the largest urban areas: Ljublja-
the concepts of “new fatherhood” propounded na, Maribor, Celje and Murska Sobota. Accord-
by modern family policies is an especially slow ing to the Employment Service data, the group of
process and a “protracted” revolution (Hoch- long-term-unemployed women includes 494 for-
schild, 2003) in Slovenia, too. The intensification eigners, with the majority of these coming from
of work, employment uncertainty, and the “ethic ex-Yugoslav countries, Bosnia and Herzegovi-
of paid work”, which is the result of the transition na, Croatia, Serbia and Montenegro in particular
to the capitalist system, have had an effect both (Employment Service of Slovenia, 2006). There
on men and women. But as women carry most exist significant gender differences in employ-
of the burden of domestic work, this new social ment rates for older population (55 – 64): while
situation has brought them into a particularly un- in 2004 the male employment rate in this age
enviable position (Rudd, 2000; Pascal, Manning, group was 40.9%, the rate for women was only
2000; Šadl, 2006). 17.8% (Kanjuo Mrčela, 2006).
Contemporary informal household work-
ers in Slovenia belong to various social groups.
1.2. Long-term unemployed women and Many are younger retired women, employed
irregular paid domestic work working class women, unemployed women who
never sought a regular job, and students. What
The change from the socialist system to they have in common is that, for them, paid
the capitalist one, in the early 1990s was also household work is not a means of livelihood, but
marked by the restructuring of the predominantly a source of extra income that to a certain ex-
industrial, state-owned economy into the private tent may enhance their economic situation and
market economy. Many companies went out of quality of life. However, a large number of con-
business during this process, with the textile in- temporary household workers are long-term un-
dustry, which traditionally employed mostly wo employed women for whom this work is the only
men, suffering especially hard blows. The “turbo- means of survival.
capitalist” management logic led to massive lay- As part of the SIPA project, 16 long-term
offs of older women in particular, even in compa- unemployed women have been interviewed in
nies which did not collapse. Job advertisements focus groups at the local Employment Service
began to feature a new requirement – “preferred office in Ljubljana. The purpose in conducting
age up to 35.” Unemployment during the transi- the focus groups was to find out whether the tar-
tion period especially affected older women with get group of long-term unemployed women was
low education levels, and their unemployment truly interested in regular jobs within the domes-
continues to be a structural problem of long- tic services sector and which negative and posi-
term unemployment in Slovenia. The following tive sides they associated with that kind of work.
data show that one among the very vulnerable It turned out that many among the long-term un-
groups of women on the labor market is older employed women already worked as domestic
women with low education, living in urban areas. workers within the gray economy sector.
According to the Employment Service criteria, a
Veronika has been registered with the day and night. Her concluding thought was: “My
Employment Service since 1991. When she dears, I’ll never get another regular job.”
found herself without work and income, she
asked a local shop owner if he knew someone All but four respondents have already
who was looking for domestic help. It took only provided, and still provide, domestic help servic-
half an hour to make all the arrangements. The es in households, and/or have had experience in
family owned two surgeries; her workday was providing care for older people or care for a sick
to be 8 hours long; on Saturdays they needed relative. Their experiences are mixed, both po
a little help now and then, and Sundays were sitive and negative. Positive experiences mainly
to be off days. The monthly wage was approx. stem from the employer’s responsible attitude,
625 euros in cash. However, she ended up as a involving agreed payment and work defined in
“Jill of all trades” as she put it. She tidied up the advance, and a respectful attitude of household
house and the surgeries, washed, looked after a members towards domestic workers. Negative
14-month old baby, cooked separate meals for experiences mainly relate to exploitative attitude
the child, the family and their dog, and so forth. that involves low or delayed payments, impo
Her work day sometimes extended to 10 or 11 sing of additional work and sexual harassment.
hours, and she also had to work on Sundays. In Speaking about the main problem arising from
the three weeks she persisted with that house- unregulated domestic work offered on the black
hold, she lost 6 kilos. market, the respondents highlighted the lack of
definition of the scope of work, which is a basis
Below is the story of Lidija, who earns for exploitation. The interviewees emphasized
her living as a live-in household worker. She the necessity of regulation which would com-
found herself in the no-escape position follow- prise a work contract, social protection and an
ing an illness and the resulting loss of her job. agency in organizing work. When asked wheth-
er they would perform domestic work in house-
Lidija has been registered with the Em- holds if it were regulated and its scope defined,
ployment Service for one and a half years. She their answers reflected mixed feelings – some
had worked for six years as a cleaner for a pri- would accept such work, others would not. The
vate cleaning service when she fell ill and had to most important reservations involve low pay,
have a surgery. Her limited-term contract expired exploitation in the sense of work overload, and
while she was on sick leave, and her employer low respect for their work on the part of house-
refused to extend it. She has now recovered and hold members. At the same time, their answers
has been looking for steady work. However, the revealed their overall view that domestic work
first question from every prospective employer is services were socially undervalued and equated
why she lost her job, and as soon as they learned with the cleaning job, which gives it a negative
that she was seriously ill, the job interview was sense, and to which our respondents attached
over. At the moment, she receives social aid the lowest value.
amounting to 150 euros; she pays 29 euros per Social, economic, and demographic
month for social insurance and 59 euros for pen- changes in Slovenia, just like in other European
sion contribution. She has a rich experience of countries, give rise to bigger demands for ser
household cleaning jobs, some of them bad, vices of paid domestic and care work. In Slove-
some of them good. Some households paid well, nia, the purchase of domestic services is gener-
others cheated her, and some “exploited her to ally not a status symbol but rather a need arising
the last drop.” Her rates are 5 to 5.5 euros per from the time deficit in two-career households
hour for ironing, window cleaning and general with children. For the time being, people buy and
cleaning, and from 3.3 to 4.2 euros for tidying sell services of this kind on the black market,
up. She especially likes to do master cleaning which involves quite some risks for both sides.
and has become known for it. Usually, the family It leads to the invisibility of reproductive work as
leaves her the keys on Fridays, when they go socially relevant work that especially burdens
away for the weekend, and collect them from the certain segments of society. For domestic work-
post-box or at the neighbors’ on Sundays when In Slovenia paid domestic work is a hidden social phe-
they return to the clean apartment. Lidija lost her nomenon which neither those who perform domestic
tenant right in the process of denationalization, work nor those who hire domestic workers are keen to
so she has been working for an older, ill gentle- discuss. This fact undoubtedly makes research difficult.
man with alcohol problem, in exchange for free In Slovenia, the job of a cleaner in public places is asso-
ciated with the image of migrant women from ex-Yugo-
accommodation and food. She looks after him slavia.
ers this means undefined working conditions of family work, and the households received 15
and absence of social security, plus total social vouchers every month. When the work was fin-
invisibility. Although reducing undeclared work ished, households gave the appropriate number
has become a priority within the national em- of vouchers to the workers, who brought them to
ployment strategy, still not enough attention has the coordinator at the end of each month. The
been focused on the sector of domestic work vouchers enabled the coordinator to keep track
where undeclared feminine work is really high. both of the housework done in each household
and of the amount of paid hours completed by
each domestic worker. The mediation (coordina-
2. The Pilot Experiment of Paid Domestic tion) between the households and the domestic
Work in Households with Small Children workers enabled the arrangement of working
hours, changes in the schedules, and the re-
placements of workers when they were absent
2.1. Logistics of the Pilot Experiment or dissatisfied with working conditions, as well
as the resolution of conflicts, etc. Even though
To find out if the introduction of the public much of the arranging was done directly between
system of household assistance would reduce the households and the workers, the mediation
the work - family conflict in households with pre- gave both sides a very important feeling of se-
school children and create new quality workpla curity and trust, and it simultaneously enabled
ces for the long-term unemployed women, the supervision and organization.
SIPA project used the financial support provided
by the EU Program EQUAL to organize a six-
month pilot experiment. During that period we 2.2. Recruitment troubles
organized paid domestic work for thirty house-
holds with pre-school children living in Ljublja- The research study that covered 100
na. The social enterprise Centerkontura, which long-term unemployed women in Ljubljana
took over the execution and coordination of the showed that 64% of them would accept employ-
pilot experiment, employed five domestic work- ment in this area for a respectable payment.
ers for the period of six months, four of them full- Agency-provided jobs were preferred by 35%
time and one part-time, paying them a fixed net of women, while 15% would opt for self-employ-
monthly salary of €443, plus travel and subsis ment status; 12% of respondents would work for
tence costs. In Slovenia, this amount comforta- someone they already know, and only 3% would
bly fits into the range of wages for care work cal- choose to be entrepreneurs themselves and or-
culated according to the public scheme defined ganize domestic work. During the early stages of
in collective agreements, and in 2006 it was con- the pilot project organization, we faced great dif-
sidered a decent living wage. The working condi- ficulties in recruiting workers, which threatened
tions were as follows: temporary employment for the progress of study. Since the goal was to em-
the period of six months, an eight-hour working ploy persons from the target group of long-term
day consisted of five hours of effective work plus unemployed women, we initially tried to engage
three hours for transport and lunch, and flexible households and women from the group of job
working time. seekers who participated in the survey. When
The pilot experiment organized paid they were presented the employment opportu-
family work using the system of vouchers and nity within the pilot project, 11 women out of 23
mediation, while ensuring relative constancy of who attended the presentation meeting (out of
each worker and reserving a time-slot with the 100 invited) at the local Employment Agency
household for her services. The households re- expressed interest, but only 6 of these attended
ceived the vouchers at the beginning of the pilot the related training organized by the Sezam as-
experiment. One voucher covered one paid hour sociation. Initially, Centerkontura was able to re-
The households that were provided with help with do- The households got 15 hours a month of free domes-
mestic work were drawn from a sample of households tic work during the pilot experiment. One hour’s price
participating in the empirical study described above, who for the domestic worker which burdened the project was
were ready to take part in the pilot experiment, too. The €10.94, including material and coordination costs.
total number of households at the begging was 30. The That was an ad hoc training in the form of one-day work-
period of the pilot experiment was from April 14, 2006 to shop on first aid, hygienic minimum in households and
October 15, 2006. communication with households. The organizer of that
In December 2006, the average net salary in Slovenia training, Sezam, offers sporadic childcare services on
amounted to €780 and the minimum one to €261. the market.
cruit only three women, so there were only three the number of hours to which a household was
domestic workers participating in the project dur- entitled, while also offering one or two afternoon
ing the first two months. We succeeded in find- or night shifts. The workers therefore enjoyed a
ing a fourth employee two months later, and the relatively predictable and orderly working time;
fifth, who worked part-time, four months later. they could work for two households several days
For these reasons, the average number of hours a week, 3 or 4 hours a day, thus exceeding an
per month was below 15 per household, while 8-hours working day and then having one work-
workers worked somewhat more than 5 effective free day, or they worked two days for one house-
hours per day. The realization of the project in hold 4 hours a day. The greatest part of domestic
terms of working hours was approximately 2/3 work was accomplished between 8 a.m. and 4
– there were 2700 hours of domestic work antici- p.m. Only 9% of hours were worked after 4 p.m.
pated within the period of six months, compared or at night. No work was required during week-
to the actual 1813 hours worked. ends and holidays. The pilot project revealed
Many of the reasons for declining the that the households wished not only for steady
job offer are understandable and arise from the workers but also for fixed time schedules, as a
conception and organization of the project. First, rule, during the morning hours. By including the
the term of the project was too short, because option of an afternoon shift once or twice a month
a person re-registering with the Employment (e.g. to take care of children or escort them), the
Service after being six months in employment job of domestic workers was organized within a
is not entitled to unemployment allowances any predictable and orderly time schedule.
more. In that case, the reason for turning down Travel logistics also proved very impor-
the job offer is what Cox (2006: 48) conceptua tant. Only one worker used her own car, while
lizes as “poverty trap,” whereby it is difficult for others depended on public transport. This proved
long term unemployed women to enter the paid to be extremely time consuming and represen
workforce because of the benefits they would ted physical burden for workers. The time used
lose. Therefore, they prefer to continue to work for traveling from one household to another was
“off the books”. Second, as it turned out later, our considered a part of the working time. Accord-
demand for flexible working hours was not quite ingly, services had to be organized in such a way
realistic, since a large portion of domestic work that one worker covered households in the same
could be organized within the time frame of regu- district, which made easier her moving from one
lar working hours, and this was a feature seen as household to the next.
extremely unattractive by prospective workers. It
is possible that the interest would have been
greater if our selection had been more targeted Scope of work
(e.g. a focus on long-term unemployed women
who already work as domestic workers within The participating workers kept a diary,
the gray sector and would like to have regular recording the tasks accomplished, and analysis
employment), and had we been able to offer a of these records revealed the types of work that
one-year job with predictable working hours and were most frequently required. Obviously, the
more comprehensive training beforehand. services required were not related to lifestyle
maintenance of household (Anderson, 1997,
2001; Cox, 2006), but involved activities needed
2.3. Observations to maintain basic household hygiene and tidying
up, meaning the tasks that were never in short
supply in households with small children. The
Schedule coordination and travel logistics list is topped by vacuum cleaning, cleaning of
the bathroom, ironing, dusting, kitchen cleaning,
One of the main problems within the sec- washing up, window cleaning, garbage dispos-
tor of paid domestic work is the incompatibility al and washing of clothes. In addition to these
of demands for flexible working hours with qua most frequent tasks, there was also cooking,
lity working conditions. Domestic workers who garbage sorting, and shopping for the house-
offer their services on the black market usually hold. There was a lot of floor cleaning, clothes
work long, dispersed and unpredictable hours hanging, collecting and putting away, wardrobe
(Anderson, 2000; Cox, 2006; Lutz, 2007; Lister and door cleaning, oven and cooker cleaning,
et al., 2007). In organizing the pilot project, we general kitchen cleaning including the cleaning
tackled this challenge by limiting from the outset of the fridge. It is evident from the diaries that
the majority of duties were repetitive cleaning can afford it, increasingly choose to outsource
tasks, meaning labor intensive activities that household work. As one respondent said:
are the most physically strenuous and the most
time-consuming category of domestic labor. The “We want to spend afternoons with chil-
evaluation of the pilot project showed that mas- dren, because in the morning, they are in kin-
ter cleaning was a major source of workers’ dis- dergarten anyway. Those few afternoon hours,
satisfaction with work. They perceive it as physi- in fact not many, to hire a childcarer for these
cally very hard work that should be evaluated hours, it is actually unnecessary and in my opin-
separately and that requires a special organiza- ion even harmful… It’s really fine when you don’t
tion of work activities. have to worry about the hygiene of the apart-
The domestic work in this pilot was not ment; otherwise, it is postponed until Saturday
limited only to household chores but also inclu morning.”
ded attendance of and escorting children. How-
ever, the service of childminding amounted to Apart from showing that parents priori-
no more than 10% of all the accomplished tasks tize socializing with children over tidying up, our
in the pilot experiment. The interviewed house- experiment also revealed that some parents al-
holds said that they needed domestic services ready hire a childcare service instead of send-
primarily to be able to maintain basic household ing their children to kindergartens. As domestic
hygiene and do away with ironing and cleaning workers who met childcarers during morning
so that they can dedicate a few afternoon and hours explained, these are mainly students or
evening hours to children. younger retired women, who:
Since most of employments are mainly
inflexible and do not adjust to the needs of fami- “… do not do anything else but only look
lies in any aspect, the reconciliation of work and after the child; they make food only for the child
family life is a unidirectional process, meaning and do not even need to collect toys. I first have
that the family adjusts to the employment en- to pack away toys before I can start vacuuming
tirely. Our respondents asserted that the issue or washing the floor. This takes me more than
here was the balancing of household tasks and half an hour.”
time spent with children, and by no means the
balancing of work and family life. A member of This indicates that there exists a certain
one household stated: social hierarchy of childcarers and cleaners.
However, it is interesting that childcarers’ hourly
“Cleaning is a problem when children are rates on the black market are radically lower than
around. I don’t know if anyone can do cleaning those of cleaners (which may be quite high).
when kids are at home. In our home, one went
out with the kids while the other did the cleaning.
But that leads to partners increasingly drawing Relations
apart. I no longer saw my wife. All you can do is
say ‘hi’ at around 10 p.m. when you sit down to Literature on paid domestic work gives
watch TV, exchange a few sentences and you extensive reports on patronization, exploitation,
are already asleep. You have 10 minutes a day discrimination and humiliation, which occasion-
to spend with your partner, and that is the main ally turn into real abuse and slave-like relation-
problem.” ship (Anti-Slavery International, 2006; Fish,
2006; Skŕivánková, 2006; Ehrenreich and Hoch-
Partners are forced to choose whether schild, 2002; Hondagneu-Sotelo, 2001; Parre-
they will use a few spare hours during late after- nas, 2001; Chang, 2000; Anderson, 2000; Chin,
noons and evenings to be with children or to tidy 1998; Schester, 1998; Bakan et al., 1997; Heyzer
up. Usually they choose to spend time with chil- et al., 1994; Thornton, 1994; Sanjek et al., 1990;
dren and postpone household work until week- Rollins, 1985; Cock, 1980). Our coordination
end. Or, one partner (usually father) spends time and agency in organizing paid domestic work
with children, while the other does urgent house- for this pilot project had positive influence on the
hold work. Slovenian parents of pre-school chil- relationship between household members and
dren who are forced to choose between house- domestic workers. Both parties found it easier
hold work and socializing with children, which to establish needed trust and limit exploitation.
is at the heart of the reconciliation of work and Sixty-six percent of households thought that they
family life, give priority to children. Those who had established a pleasant relationship with the
domestic workers. Asked about the relationship and at this lady’s, when I arrived they said ‘the
they established with the domestic worker, one cleaner has arrived.’ I told them, ‘listen, I’m not a
respondent said: cleaner.’ It was hard for me there sometimes.”
“A friendly attitude. More than once I told The quality of a domestic worker’s job
her, ‘Now take a cigarette break’, because Ana largely depends on the culture of the household,
had back problem and I did not want her to strain on the relationship that develops, and in particu-
too much. We had quite a friendly relationship. lar, how a household values their work. House-
She has a grandson the same age as my son, holds greatly vary in that respect.
so we talked a lot about it…”
of participants in the experiment, which caused works in individual households. Because of the
difficulties at the time of recruitment and when a too few available workers, our travel logistics
worker needed a sick leave, and made schedule and schedule coordination occasionally failed.
coordination and travel logistics more compli- As to the positive sides of this work, the most of-
cated. Both sides, the households and domestic ten emphasized were good relationships with the
workers, listed several reasons why this type of household members and their respect for their
work should remain unregulated. The participa work. Four out of five long-term-unemployed
ting households saw its advantages in greater participants stated at the end of the pilot project
flexibility, servility, domestic worker’s motivation that they would accept a domestic worker job if
and lower costs of labor, all being features that it involved regular employment including social
arise from the relationship of dependence on the security and pension insurance. The one who
private employer. Domestic workers, for their would reject such job stated that she did not feel
part, saw advantages in organizing the work ac- comfortable in an intimate atmosphere of private
cording to their own needs and wishes, and in a homes, so she preferred cleaning jobs in public
higher income unburdened by taxes and social institutions. The privacy and intimacy aspects of
and pension insurance. paid domestic work definitely testify to its special
Despite the qualms mentioned above, character (Lutz, 2007).
both parties assessed the experiment in very The specific kind of organization em-
positive terms. In evaluation, we used two ap- ployed in this pilot experiment was obviously
proaches: quantitative, using the questionnaire, chosen to resolve the specific problem of our
and qualitative, involving focus groups composed target group, i.e. to balance work and family life
of the majority of households and participating in households with children. By contrast, the ser
domestic workers. The participating households vicing of the growing EU population of older peo-
assessed the project and the idea of affordable ple needing care would require a different type of
domestic services as very positive. The majo organization and services. Paid domestic work
rity (80%) said that their expectations were ful- in households with children can be organized
filled. The problems mentioned included the lack under modernized (Katzman, 1978; Thornton
of flexibility as a result of the small number of Dill, 1994; Ozyegin, 2001) live-out terms, while
participating workers. On the other hand, 86,7% older people in need of care frequently require
of households stated that they found the most attendance 24-hours a day, meaning a live-in
suitable type of arrangement to be a fixed one, care worker. These workers are in the shortest
meaning regular daily and time schedules. That supply in the EU countries.
is to say that the flexibility mentioned above did
not relate as much to flexible schedules as to
the situations when a worker needed to be re- 3. Paid domestic work – the same as any
placed. In the conversation conducted within the other job?
focus group, some admitted that they were not
completely satisfied with the quality of work, par- In the EU, the transformation of unpaid
ticularly if they compared it to the services previ- work traditionally carried out in the private homes
ously hired on the black market. In their opinion, by women is increasingly seen by policy makers
the main reason was lower motivation among as having a potential for job creation (Regulating
regularly employed domestic workers. As a solu- domestic help, A5-0301/2000). Developing do-
tion, they proposed dividing a worker’s payment mestic services is viewed as a means of creat-
into a fixed and variable part, with the latter de- ing jobs for those workers whom technological
pending on the satisfaction of an employer. innovation had rendered redundant in industrial
Domestic workers stated that their deci- production. The regulation and professionaliza-
sion to take part in the pilot project was moti- tion of informal domestic work is seen as a win-
vated primarily by financial reasons and by the win situation: it addresses the need for more and
need for communication, socialization and other better home and family services in Europe, while
activities associated with employment. They at the same time it provides more and better
identified three main problems with the organi- quality jobs for hard-to-employ people. Regula-
zation of the pilot project: insufficient number of tion of paid domestic work would lead into cre-
domestic workers compared to the number of ating new job opportunities for hard-to-employ
participating households; geographical disper- people and into their social inclusion, as well
sion of households and schedule-related prob- as represent a measure taken up to help mana
lems when there was a few hours gap between ging work - family conflict and ageing of popula-
tion. Undoubtedly, the idea opens up as many rate system of education, of promotion, etc?
problems as solutions. Windebank (2007), for Or should it be in the large scale a creation of
instance, argues that these services reinforce new, unskilled job positions? Should specialized
the gender stereotyping surrounding domestic or integrated services be offered? How can the
work by transferring it from more well-off to less de-feminization of this work area be achieved?
well-off women. The idea of opening up the new What measures should be adopted to support
job opportunities in the field of domestic services supply and demand? How should the supply on
and consequently the social inclusion of hard-to the black market be countered? The conclusions
employ people could be highly contradictory not arising from the pilot project can contribute some
only from gender equality perspectives but also recommendations to the consideration of the
from domestic workers’ perspectives. Namely, regulation of paid domestic work in Slovenia.
it reaffirms the existing social relations by crea
ting hard, poorly defined and low-paid jobs that • The creation of new jobs through subsidies
are held in low social esteem and do not offer that would amount to approximately 50% of
promotion options for marginalized social groups the gross wage of a domestic worker and of
starting from weak social and economic posi- coordination and education costs would re-
tions. It is clear that unless appropriate action is duce the price of these services, make them
taken through policy and workplace measures, more accessible, and would also create regu
the majority of jobs created will be of low skilled, lar, organized labor relations for domestic
poorly-paid, precarious and low status. workers. The subsidy would enable the sur-
Meagher (2000), on the other hand, ar- vival of public social organization that carry
gues that most of the studies of contemporary out recruitment, education, and employment
paid domestic services are focusing either on and the market promotion of these services.
global macro level or on individual micro level. In • The wages of domestic workers should be
the first case, the studies discuss the global struc- attractive; otherwise they would not be com-
tural oppression and constrain thinking about petitive with earnings on the black market.
remedies largely to the wholesale transformation At the same time, they should remain within
of society. On the other hand, the predominantly certain limits in order to keep the prices down
micro level analyses of experiences and strate- and make domestic services accessible to
gies focus on domestic workers’ and women’s in- a wider circle of users, not only wealthy so-
dividual responses to the plight of economic and cial classes. Having that in mind, it is recom-
cultural problems in their working lives. What is mendable to consider selective subsidies on
absent in the literature, argues Meagher, is the the side of the demand (e.g. within the frame-
meso-level of institutional analysis. Remedies to work of family policies).
domestic workers’ problems that can be pursued • The domestic work services should be defined
through institutional innovation remain relatively accurately, including their content, working
unexplored, although strategies aimed at chan hours and rates. Both specific services (e.g.
ging the distribution of domestic and care work master cleaning) and integral services (e.g.
between the market, state, households and civil shopping, cooking, escorting of children) can
society as well as strategies aimed at removing be offered.
the discriminatory barriers that excluded ethi- • The quality of workplace is the most important
cized and gendered groups confront in the labor element when creating new jobs within the
market could be highly relevant to the problems service sector. Since domestic work involves
of paid household work. Nevertheless, she reco harder physical labor, and since domestic
gnizes that although varieties of formalization workers are mainly long-term-unemployed
can remedy many of the problems workers are women, frequently at an advanced age, ef-
vulnerable to in informal paid housework (fair fective work should be limited to 5 or 6 hours
contracting, protect against personal mistreat- a day; the time used for transport from one
ment of workers by householders and to various workplace to another should be considered a
extent increase pay rates), domestic occupations part of working hours.
retain a social stigma (Meagher, 2003: 133). • Since this segment anticipates work with
The dilemmas arising from the attempts hard-to-employ persons, education should
to regulate paid domestic work are many. Should include motivation for work, the elements of
professionalization of paid domestic work be exe psycho-social integration, and special stress
cuted through occupational qualifications that should be placed on knowledge of the work-
require time-consuming procedures, an elabo- er’s rights and methods to implement them.
It should also devote attention to work/sociali ket norms in an inclusive way on both sides: for
zing with children. domestic workers in need of quality jobs and for
• Coordination must be professional, acces- households in need of quality services. These
sible, and flexible and must be based on jobs need to be transformed into well-paid jobs
modern communication technologies. Both involving democratic employer-worker-consumer
domestic workers and household members relations, high-quality service and opportunities
should have a feeling of confidence and or- for occupational mobility. That way, the redistri-
ganization. It should comprise mediation in bution of domestic and care work between state,
conflict situations, advocacy, help with net- households, market and civil society would not
working, self-organization etc. It should en- rely on the existence/creation of servant under-
able self-organization of domestic workers class. The existing attempts to organize a public
in the form of cooperatives. It should aspire system of domestic and care assistance in pri-
towards the standardization of paid domestic vate homes and regulate paid domestic work
work, towards quality working condition and (Cancedda, 2001; Hrženjak 2007) show that
de-feminization of this area. professionalization and democratization of paid
Household services as public social domestic work require commitment, including fi-
services have the potentials for challenging mar- nancial subsidies, on the part of the state.
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www.mageeq.net
MAJDA HRŽENJAK
Mirovni institut - Institut za suvremene društvene i političke studije, Ljubljana,
Slovenija
Sažetak