Why domestic workers retire to poverty
MBABANE – After years of toiling for families, domestic workers retire with wrinkly hands and poor state of health, without any provident fund to live on.
This is because most employers in this sector were found to be not complying with the statutory provisions to ensure that domestic workers have provident fund stored for them after retirement.
The company responsible for keeping provident fund deductions is the Eswatini National Provident Fund (ENPF).
The law makes it compulsory for the employer and worker to contribute E175 apiece.
After having worked for so many years, domestic workers have been shocked to find that nothing had been saved against their names, making them vulnerable to poverty.
Currently, there is an estimated 15 000 domestic workers in the country as per the study conducted in 2015 by the Domestic Workers Association.
In a tell-it-all interview with this reporter, domestic workers who have worked for over 10 years related the pain of having to work without saving for the future.
The domestic workers stated that although they had tried saving on their own, it had not helped them.
Hlumsile Matsebula, who has been a domestic worker for over 17 years, stated that she had never imagined what would happen when she could no longer afford to work.
Deducted
Matsebula mentioned that in all the years she had worked, she would have saved so much, had the provident fund been deducted. She said their employers did not cooperate in terms of making contributions towards their pension. This, she said, was frustrating, but they had no choice as they needed to survive.
Matsebula said she still had the strength to wake up and do the required chores for a domestic worker, but there would be a time when she could no longer afford to do such work.
According to Matsebula, she had also tried to make her own savings for the future with the Swaziland Women’s Economic Empowerment Trust (SWEET), but had lost hope on getting her savings back.
She stated that while on duty, she had contracted rheumatism, a disease that affects the bones which is caused by excessive use of water.
“Every month, I am required to see the doctor due to my ill-health, but I continue working to put food on the table,” she said.
Meanwhile, Matsebula said domestic workers were required to be physically fit in order to do their work. According to Matsebula, their wish was for government to come up with a legislation to compel their employers to contribute to their pension as it was very important. She said they were also disadvantaged on issues of workmen’s compensation as they were not covered.
“I lost my thumb and my employer wanted to compensate me, but was told by the labour office that we were not covered.”
She said her boss was told that she was not compelled to pay the workmen’s compensation.
Matsebula said, by the grace of God, she was still able to work for her children as her hand was not completely severed.
Furthermore, Duma Nxumalo said his main responsibilities included doing manual work for a family. Nxumalo said as he was doing his job, he was injured and, instead of getting support from his employer, he was fired.
“I had to go to hospital almost every day as I was treating my injuries and this did not sit well with my employer, who eventually fired me.”
Nxumalo said he had to pay for his own medical bills, despite that he was injured on duty.
On the issue of pension, Nxumalo said their wish would be for government to consider compelling their employers to make a contribution on their behalf as their salaries were minuscule.
Nomsa Shongwe, on the other hand, stated that she had been working for over 15 years now, adding that, although she had changed employers, she believed that if her pension had been remitted to the fund, she would have had something to fall back on. Shongwe said she had grown old and would soon be forced to stay at home as she no longer had the strength.
“I should have long stopped working, but I am the breadwinner at home, hence I need to put food on the table,” said Shongwe.
She said it was unfortunate that despite working all these years, her family would starve should she quit her job.
Shongwe stated that she was the sole breadwinner and her children were also not employed.
Unfortunate
Phumelele Zulu from Eswatini Domestic Workers Association said it was unfortunate that even high profile people did not make contributions for their helpers.
Zulu said nobody seemed to care about the domestic workers’ welfare, yet they played a key role in homes.
She said the International Labour Organisation (ILO) Convention 189 that addressed specifically the issue of decent work for domestic workers, including issues of provident fund and workmen’s compensation was not ratified by the country.
This, she said, was a 2011 convention, which had not been ratified yet in Eswatini. Zulu said they had been pushing for the convention to be ratified and went as far as writing to the Ministry of Labour and Social Security and also met with the ministry’s portfolio committee.
She said there had been talk around the conversion of the provident fund into pension, something which she said had been taking very long and they did not know what was delaying the process.
Zulu mentioned that part of their proposal was that there should be a mechanism or agreement while the issue was being discussed by the wages council.
She said although they sat in the wages council to discuss terms and conditions for domestic workers, there was very little improvement.
Zulu said there was no domestic worker earning more than E3 000, and though they had improved the extra duties done, they earned 25 per cent of each. Such, she said, had improved their minimum wage to at least E2 000. Zulu said domestic workers were vulnerable people, hence it became difficult to force their employer to comply with the gazette.