Protecting paid domestic workers under lockdown: Latin American strategies during the COVID-19 pandemic. (2nd January 2022)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Poblete, Lorena
• Is Part Of: Labour & industry. Volume 32:Number 1(2022)
• Page Start: 55
• Page End: 71
• Publication Date: 2022-01-02
• Subjects: Paid domestic work -- Latin America -- legal protections -- COVID-19 pandemic -- welfare policies; Work -- Periodicals; Industrial relations -- Periodicals; Industrial relations; Work; Periodicals; 331.05
• DOI: 10.1080/10301763.2022.2045554
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1030-1763

Abstract

ABSTRACT: Most domestic workers in Latin America earn low wages and have no formal contract. When the COVID-19 pandemic began, the position of these workers became even more precarious as working time was reduced for many, and as a result, incomes declined. Many other workers suffered suspensions without pay or redundancy without severance. Governments across the region thus sought to develop new strategies to guarantee domestic workers' income. Taking a comparative perspective, the paper aims to understand a variety of government responses to the domestic work issue during the COVID-19 pandemic in four Latin American countries (Argentina, Chile, Colombia and Paraguay). An analysis of all regulations enacted during the first nine months of the pandemic leads into a discussion of the primary dilemma states faced: determining whether domestic workers could be protected as workers or as a segment of the working poor.