Legal Protection for Domestic Workers: The Case of Wolaita Sodo Town, Ethiopia

Abstract

This research examines legal protection for domestic workers, who are highly exposed to varieties of abuses and violence by taking the comparative analysis of some African countries like Kenya and South Africa. The best experience of these countries was selected as they extended labour law protection for domestic workers too. The International Labour Organization (ILO) has adopted the convention for special legal protection of domestic workers. Some countries of the world also signed and ratified the convention. However, Ethiopia was also signed but not yet ratified the convention and explicitly excluded domestic workers from labour law protection. The main objective of the research is to assess the legal protection of domestic workers in the study area. This research has employed doctrinal legal research and some empirical considerations were analyzed qualitatively through narration and thematic analysis techniques to articulate legal protection of domestic workers. The finding of the research indicated that there is no clear contractual agreement between employers and domestic workers, unlimited work time without rest including night time, work with less or no remuneration, abuses and sexual violations. The research also revealed that there is violation of rights of the domestic workers due to multiple factors but the legal protection is inadequate. Some of those factors include bargaining power imbalance, lack of clearly agreed terms of contract, illiteracy and working in private household, lack of awareness and weak realization of laws and failures of the organs of government. So, the research suggests that domestic workers need recognition and adequate legal protection due to their special vulnerability.