A survey shows an alarming malaise in a sector heavily dominated by women and migrant workers.
‘You will only crawl to retirement with burnout. It’s a shame because I like this job, but after 18 years, enough is enough. I’m on my way out.’ That is how a Slovak worker in domestic and homecare services responded when asked about their work. Such testimony points to a larger crisis in the ‘personal and household services’ (PHS) sector, as a recent survey shows.
PHS workers, 96 per cent of whom are women, perform many diverse and essential tasks. These range from caring for children, the elderly and disabled people to the activities of daily household life such as cooking, cleaning and gardening.
The survey was commissioned by our European trade union federations, UNI Europa and the European Federation of Food, Agriculture, and Tourism Trade Unions, together with the sectoral employer organisations, the European Federation for Services to Individuals and the European Federation for Family Employment and Home Care. Co-financed by the European Commission, it is the largest-ever such sounding at European level, collecting the responses of more than 6,500 workers, employers and service users from 26 countries. Its findings raise alarm for the future of a sector which accounts for an estimated 4 per cent of total employment in the European Union.
Particularly worrying
Most of the workers surveyed (56.9 per cent) said they would be unable to continue in their job until retirement age. Nearly three-fifths had considered leaving the sector in the past three years—two-thirds of them because of low pay. That is particularly worrying given the EU’s demographic crisis, with the ratio of the population over 65 projected to increase from one-fifth to one-third by 2050.
Besides low pay, the majority of PHS workers also reported mental strain as a potential reason for leaving the job. Among those who worked 40 or fewer hours per week, half said their job had caused mental-health problems, such as stress, anxiety or burnout. Among those who worked more than 40 hours, that rose to 65.8 per cent.
While an important component of the sector, migrant PHS workers experienced a significantly worse work-life balance. They were much more likely than non-migrant workers to say they had considered leaving the profession in the past three years.
That was compounded by administrative difficulties related to migration status when trying to find PHS work. This could be a barrier to declared work, leading to a lack of recognition, rights and protection. A PHS cleaner from the Netherlands reported: ‘I am undocumented in the Netherlands and the government does not recognise my work here, so we do not have benefits like paid sick leave.’
Win-win-win situation
Not only workers, however, recognise the issues in the sector. Employers and service users surveyed acknowledged low pay as a problem too. A PHS employer in France testified: ‘The salary is not attractive, they do not want to work in this sector or when they work there, it is not the priority.’
Service users anticipated ‘disaster’ if they no longer had access to PHS workers for their homes. Some said they would have no choice but to move parents and other loved ones into assisted living and out of their homes. Likewise, many women receiving PHS services at home recognised that, without the help of these workers, they would find their career opportunities more constrained and their quality of life reduced.
Workers, employers and many service users agreed that the sector lacked the public and institutional recognition to match its importance and contribution to society, thus exacerbating the low pay and poor conditions which drove workers to look elsewhere. This weak recognition is deeply entwined with weak public investment.
Most user-employers—employing and using the services of a PHS worker—indicated they would benefit from representation by an employer’s organisation that could negotiate minimum standards with trade unions. More than half of those employers surveyed whose workforces were not covered by a collective-bargaining agreement said they were open to signing one. The majority of PHS users would welcome it too: they would prefer to use a company or organisation that had a collective agreement with trade unions governing the working conditions of PHS workers in their homes.
In short, the survey points to a win-win-win situation, where workers, employers and users would benefit from good standards in the industry.
Straightforward solutions
PHS workers have an essential role in sustaining life and shaping the future of European society. Yet the survey shows that too often they remain undervalued and lack the recognition they deserve. It is high time for the sector to be recognised like any other, governed by viable industrial relations and providing decent working conditions.
While the findings of the survey are grim, it does point to straightforward solutions for improving working conditions—and thereby to a sustainable sector:
- formalisation of the sector and educational efforts to improve the image of PHS work for workers and users,
- increased state funding to resolve the tension between high prices and low wages, and
- improved working and living conditions overall.
This can only be realised through strong social dialogue and collective bargaining at all levels—from the national to the European.
Oliver Roethig heads UNI Europa, the European service workers’ union.
Kristjan Bragason is general secretary of the European Federation of Food, Agricultural and Tourism Trade Unions.