Eastern Mirror Desk
Dimapur, June 14 (EMN): The Nagaland unit of National Domestic Workers Movement (NDWM) has demanded from the government of Nagaland registration of the Nagaland Domestic Workers Union as a 'trade union' and inclusion of domestic workers as ‘workers’ in scheduled employment list of the Nagaland Minimum Wage of 2012.
This demand from the group comes after a decade since Nagaland joined the NDWM officially in 2008. The demand was presented at a press conference organised by the NDWM with the Nagaland Domestic Workers' Union to bring to light issues concerning their welfare and struggle for recognition in the state, on Thur. June 14 at the Assisi Centre for Integrated Development, at Khermahal in Dimapur.
The legal advisor to the state’s NDWM, Limanochet provided a copy of the letter from the secretary of Labour, Ministry of Labour and Employment, to the chief secretaries on minimum wages. The copy was dated July 1 2010. It states: 'The domestic work falls under the state sphere. The state governments are empowered to include domestic work as scheduled employment under statute.' The letter also reads: 'to take necessary steps for inclusion of domestic workers as employment in the schedule and for fixing minimum rates of wages for domestic workers in your state.'
Although the workers are said to have placed their demand to the government for recognition and minimum wage several times, it has been ignored. Domestic workers continue to work in isolation because there are no laws to protect them, lamented Limanochet.
"The officials themselves employ domestic workers so it becomes difficult for the demand to proceed and when domestic workers are not entitled as worker than there are many problems confronting them,” he said.
The union is not registered as a union so there is no bargaining for them, said Limanochet. 70% of domestic workers in India are women, it was informed. He appealed to employers to register their employees with the NDWM and the Nagaland Domestic Workers Union so they may have someone to fight and work for their workers' rights.
According to the state coordinator of NDWM, Sister Pramila Lobo, the government has to address key issues of entering domestic worker as a worker in the schedule of employment, and fix minimum wages.
Most of the labour laws treat only establishment and factories as a work place but consider private homes ‘as private sphere beyond the reach of these laws,’ she said. In Nagaland domestic work is regarded as informal employment and hence there is no law governing payment of wages, according to her.
Lobo asserted that regulation of domestic work through legislation can be the only way to address abuse faced by domestic workers. "Some of the state governments have come up with several measures to improve the working conditions of domestic workers as well as to provide access to social security schemes, introduced minimum wages and also constituted welfare boards for domestic workers. But in Nagaland domestic workers are not included in the schedule of employment and so the minimum wages are not fixed. Moreover they are not included in social security schemes and welfare boards."
There are 1750 members registered with the state NDWM who are also registered with the Nagaland Domestic Workers Union, who have been fighting together for recognition, she informed.
