Domestic Work Policy Brief no. 2
Working hours in domestic work
This document is part of a series of briefs on issues and approaches to promoting decent work for domestic workers.
This Policy Brief:
• describes the nature of problems that domestic workers face with respect to working time;
• presents research evidence that regulating working hours is not only just but also wise, benefitting both
domestic workers and their employers;
• explores some key policy issues – the extent to which domestic workers have been excluded from working time regulations, and the different sides and views of working time in domestic work;
• provides examples of measures that some countries have adopted to protect domestic workers from excessive working hours, insufficient rest and inadequate payment for actual hours worked, which demonstrate that there are varied and innovative ways of extending protection to domestic workers; and
• proposes a number of considerations as a starting point for formulating working time regimes in domestic work, which balance the need of households for flexibility with the right of domestic workers to decent working hours.
• describes the nature of problems that domestic workers face with respect to working time;
• presents research evidence that regulating working hours is not only just but also wise, benefitting both
domestic workers and their employers;
• explores some key policy issues – the extent to which domestic workers have been excluded from working time regulations, and the different sides and views of working time in domestic work;
• provides examples of measures that some countries have adopted to protect domestic workers from excessive working hours, insufficient rest and inadequate payment for actual hours worked, which demonstrate that there are varied and innovative ways of extending protection to domestic workers; and
• proposes a number of considerations as a starting point for formulating working time regimes in domestic work, which balance the need of households for flexibility with the right of domestic workers to decent working hours.