The investigation also revealed that SADAWU was involved in setting the policy agenda by identifying the problems faced by domestic workers and calling on the government to address them. This aim was achieved by applying policy analysis to literature on the history of domestic workers in South Africa and current UIF policy.
Policy Implementation
For the full implementation of the policy, there should be no time limits set for the completion of implementation. The nature of the problems themselves affects the implementation of programs designed to solve them in several ways Howlett&Ramesh.
Requirements for delivery of a policy or program
The questions range from: Are the specified access operations consistent with the intent of the policy. It is important to specify the actual services provided in operational terms during the planning and implementation phases (Rossi). For example, it is important to know how long a treatment campaign to immunize dogs will take, or how much it is estimated to cost.
Close monitoring of the delivery of services provided to participants can help staff and administrators stay closely aligned with the original goal.
Conclusion
UIF Policy for Domestic Workers
Background to domestic workers in South Africa
In response to domestic workers' plight, the South African Domestic Workers Association (SADWA) was founded in 1981. In 1986, SADWA then affiliated the South African Domestic and Allied Workers Union (SADAWU) to the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) (Mandlala et ai, 2001). However, it is difficult to get domestic workers mobilized because they are dispersed in different households. Unprotected by law and desperate to maintain a regular source of income, domestic workers are forced to suffer in silence for fear of losing their income or residency.
South Africa, violence against domestic workers can be linked to the prevailing culture of violence that is characteristic of the apartheid system" (Motsei 1990). The idea of racism created a sense of power and superiority among the white employers. They identify the country 's current troubled political atmosphere as one of the reasons for this increase.
Domestic workers and trade unions in South Africa
34;Since the unrest began in 1984, we have seen a frightening increase in the number of domestic workers attacked by their employers. 34;I had long finished my housework and Pete's children were repeatedly playing with dogs in the kitchen, against my orders to play outside. SADWU was dissolved by COSATU in 1996 and the organization has been trying to reorganize since domestic workers constitute the largest employment sector for women in South Africa and operate under difficult conditions, with inadequate legal protection (Agenda, 35,1997) in Meer ( 1998:33 ).
SADAWU was not COSATU's first attempt to form a union for domestic workers; it was the Black Domestic Workers Association (BDWA) in the 60s and 70s, which had failed. SADAWU has national offices in Johannesburg, Pretoria and the Vaal region, one in the Western Cape and one in KwaZulu-Natal. Myrtle Witbooi, the General Secretary, said the main aim of the union was to empower domestic workers to stand up for themselves and be freed from their oppression.
Historical Background to UIF
Only members of the few unions were partially protected by funds set aside for this purpose (Labour Department, 2002). This law came into force in 1937. In 1945, the payment of benefits was extended to women who stopped working and lost their earnings due to pregnancy. In addition, such contributors had to be able and available for work and actively seeking work (Department of Labor 2002).
The 1966 UIF stipulated that women contributing to the UIP must be paid for maternity leave regardless of their ability and availability to work. The 1966 UIF provided for a maternity allowance of 45 percent of the last salary for a maximum of six months. This Act provided a framework for an Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIP) that is sustainable, efficient and provides extended benefits to workers at all levels and came into force on 1 April 2003 for domestic workers (Ministry of Labour, 2002).
The Current UIF Policy For Domestic Workers
Studies on domestic workers in the United Kingdom
These new immigration regulations require that before accompanying their employers to the UK, migrant domestic workers must have been employed abroad by their employers for at least one year (Human Rights Watch, 2001). However, once in the UK, workers are allowed to change employers - to any foreign or UK employer. No time limit is placed on the time within which they must find new employers, although they must do so before the expiry of the period for which they were originally admitted.
After four years as a migrant domestic worker in the United Kingdom, the worker can apply for permanent residence. In the UK, immigrant domestic workers now have rights and the law protects their interests, if they feel they are being taken advantage of by their wives, they are allowed to change jobs as long as they continue to do domestic work.
The challenges that domestic workers are facing in South Africa
Nowadays, there is a new type of lady for domestic workers called black ladies. According to the secretary of the South African Union of Domestic and Allied Workers, black ladies are said to be inferior to whites. In terms of employment conditions for domestic helpers, a new trend is for employers who do not want to register their domestic workers to reduce the number of working days and keep them on the same salary without registering them.
The unions complain that domestic workers still work long hours and without pay for overtime. White women generally used domestic workers for social acceptance and their abuse of their domestic workers in front of their friends and family was about power. The inability to get domestic workers organized like all other workers such as miners was also a contributing factor to their problems. If the people within a working sector cannot come together to fight for their rights they cannot be free, they will only be exploited.
Findings and Conclusion
Most domestic workers refused to participate in the study without the consent of their employers. Most of them feared they could lose their jobs if their wives found out they were involved, were interviewed about the UIP policy. I later found out that the reason for this was that most employers had not registered their domestic helpers and they feared that I might have been sent by the Ministry of Labor for random checks.
When access was achieved, most employers wanted the interviews to be carried out immediately, the family and I will be in the kitchen and the lady will be in the living room, this may have influenced the responses of the domestic workers. Interviews with domestic workers and their employers were conducted in isiZulu and then had to be translated into English. These are two different languages where English has in most cases more than one word that means the same thing in different contexts, and isiZulu uses one word for one thing, but the meaning of the word can mean different things in different contexts.
FINDINGS AND ANALYSIS Identifying the problem and Agenda Setting
The union's actions may have resulted in domestic worker issues being placed on the institutional agenda. Among the employers in the sample, they have laid off their domestic workers due to a lack of understanding of how the policy works. Some employers in the sample have domestic workers, but they have not registered them because they say they cannot pay their domestic workers a minimum wage of R800.
Because of this, the gaps between registered and unregistered domestic workers are the most realizable, because you find that most domestic workers in the suburbs are registered, but when you go to the outskirts of the city, you find that most of them are not." Union. TU: H There is a gap between female workers in the household because of the places they work in. This makes the gaps between registered and unregistered female domestic workers the most feasible, because you find that most domestic workers are registered and when you go to the outskirts of the city, you find that most of them are not.''
Policy Impact
Rossi argues that policy monitoring needs to look at the extent to which the policy reaches the target population. This will serve as an indicator of whether people are responding to the policy or not. The union claims there are loopholes in UIP registration, which has resulted in more people in area A registering their domestics than area B.
Most employers in Area A comply with the law because they are in the suburbs and not those in Area B, which consists of the counties and all the other places on the outskirts of the city. 34; The positive thing is that employers call us and ask us about the policy and how to register their domestics. Employees receive the benefits of minimum wage, sick leave, paid vacation, and certain working hours include overtime and there is less exploitation because all domestic duties and responsibilities are listed in the contract.
Unintended consequences
The negative impact of the policy is also visible in domestic workers' answers to the question of what has changed in their working lives since the policy. However, some domestic workers have benefited from the policy, even if they are relatively few. Wages have increased dramatically with the implementation of the policy, from R1300 to R2200 per month, other things have remained the same.
Policy networks played a major role in the formulation of the policy as the union said that they (union) were instrumental in requesting that the domestic worker sector be regulated like all other sectors. It has been proven that the stakeholders of the WVF are selective in their perceptions of the policy. The department of labor must communicate the policy more clearly to the people so that.
APPENDIX
What are the DIP registration gaps you have observed among domestic workers and what are they dependent on? Has there been an improvement in the working conditions of domestic workers because of the policy? What is the procedure that domestic workers should follow to claim from the fund.
What changes have you experienced in the implementation of policies regarding working conditions, living wages and leave? What have you done as a department to ensure that domestic workers and their employers have knowledge and understanding of the policy?
Bibliography
