SADSAWU Submission “to investigate the feasibility of establishing a provident fund in the Domestic Worker Sector, South Africa”

In September 2010 a submission was made to the Department of Labour in South Africa to support the investigation into and the need for a provident fund for the over one million domestic workers in the country. It was submitted by the South African Domestic Services and Allied Workers Union (SADSAWU) and endorsed by Congress of South African Workers (Cosatu) in the Western Cape, the Black Sash, the Social Law Project of the University of the Western Cape and the Labour Research Service. There is no collective bargaining council for the sector where there may be as many employers as employees in a setting where the place of work is the home of the employer.

It also raises the critical challenge that domestic workers face in an employment situation where there is a flagrant violation of the provisions of equality and other provisions in the Bill of Rights given the feminisation of domestic work as well as the exploitation of children as domestic workers. In its support, the submission draws on the Constitution of the country, Section 27 (2), which makes provision that social security to ensure that all citizens are "able to support themselves and their dependents...".

It also draws on the ILO Social Security (Minimum Standards) Convention, 1952 (No. 102) which establishes a world-wide agreed minimum standards for social security and emphasises certain principles. See the submission