Unemployment, reduced income, harassment: the daily routine for domestic workers facing precarious working conditions.
Workers in this category continued working during the pandemic, being exposed to Covid, and faced a wave of unemployment.
247 - A survey released in late December by the cleaning brand Veja, in partnership with Plano CDE, indicates that 27% of Brazilian domestic workers were laid off during the COVID-19 pandemic, while approximately 40% continued working.
Only 16% were able to isolate themselves at home and still continue receiving their salaries — a measure that was encouraged by a campaign by the National Federation of Domestic Workers (Fenatrad).
Covid-19 reached Brazil through the wealthiest sectors of the population, but soon spread to the poorest segments of the population, who were the most affected. One case gained notoriety. In 2020, a domestic worker was infected by her employer in Rio de Janeiro and became the first fatal victim of the virus.
According to the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE), in its Continuous National Household Sample Survey (Pnad), unemployment, increased informality and loss of income have hit the category hard in the two years of the pandemic.
Around 6,4 million Brazilians (92% women and 65% Black) worked in domestic services in Brazil in 2019. In 2020, the contracted workforce was reduced to 4,9 million, following 1,5 million layoffs. With the economic recovery in 2021, Brazil had 5,5 million domestic workers, of which 4,1 million were unregistered.
It's worth noting that the average income for registered and informal workers fell from R$979 in the August-October 2020 quarter to R$929 in the same quarter of 2021. In São Paulo, the minimum wage for this category is R$1.296,32 per month, for a 44-hour work week. In other words, in addition to unemployment and job insecurity, domestic workers also face declining income, while inflation continues to rise (over 10% in 2021).
“Reports of moral and sexual harassment and exposure to 'trust tests' (in which the employer films the employee without authorization or leaves cash in plain sight to test their honesty, for example) have also become more common complaints during the pandemic, according to the research,” reports a news outlet. FSP.
This situation goes against what was promoted by the Workers' Party governments before the 2016 coup. By creating eSocial, Dilma included millions of domestic workers in the State's social benefits list like never before.
The coup against Dilma dramatically increased poverty.
A survey conducted by the consulting firm Tendências indicates that the number of Brazilian households belonging to social classes D and E increased from 48,7% to 51% between 2012 and 2022.However, the situation worsened after the coup that deposed elected President Dilma Rousseff in 2016. The following year, this rate rose to 50,8% and reached 51% at the beginning of this year.
According to G1, the survey indicates that, in absolute numbers, the number of households at the base of the social pyramid at the beginning of this year reached 37,7 million. According to the Tendências survey, classes D and E are composed of households with a monthly income of up to R$ 2,8.
According to the report, the situation worsened last year due to the pandemic, and the percentage of households in classes D and E reached 51,6%. The improvement recorded at the beginning of this year is linked to a slight improvement in the job market. Despite this, 30,2 million workers survive on up to one minimum wage.
The expectation is that the situation will not reverse quickly. Financial market forecasts for this year, according to the Central Bank's Focus Bulletin, indicate that the Brazilian economy will grow by only 0,29%. In 2023, projections indicate that the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) will grow by 1,75%, and by 2% in the following two years.
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