In Danuza's logic, protection punishes domestic workers.

247 - In the 19th century, slave owners had a ready argument. Black people could not be freed because, without the protection of the landowners, who, after all, owed them shelter and food, they would be left to their own devices. This Sunday, that old argument echoed in Folha de S. Paulo, in the column of writer Danuza Leão, who once lived her glory days as a socialite.

In the text "The Domestic Workers' Amendment," Danuza writes about the bill approved in the first round by the Federal Senate, which expands the rights of these professionals, requiring benefits such as the collection and payment of FGTS (a type of severance pay fund). She predicts that the bill, if not properly discussed, will put many people out of work, since the employers of the upper middle class will not be able to maintain the privilege – which, incidentally, does not exist in much of the civilized world, which Danuza knows well.

Recently, Danuza had already written that traveling to Paris and New York had lost its appeal because there was a risk of running into the building's doorman (read more). hereApparently, the socialite still hasn't gotten used to a Brazil where social boundaries are shifting and are not the same as they were in her time.

Read Danuza's column below:

The PEC for domestic workers

This amendment regarding domestic workers needs to be discussed thoroughly; since it was poorly conceived, it will be difficult to implement, and everyone will lose.

The intention to provide the best conditions for the professional makes it almost impossible for the employer to comply with the new laws; after all, it is an individual, not a company, who will be paying that salary.

I'm going to make some comments about the -different- conditions in which domestic workers work here and in more civilized countries.

I'll talk about France and the United States, which are the countries I know best. There, those who live in two-bedroom apartments are considered privileged, but none of them have a laundry room or maid's quarters (there's usually a communal area in the building with several washing and drying machines, where each resident pays for the time they use them); a family living in such an apartment has—when they have one—a cleaning lady who comes once a week for a couple of hours.

Of course, everyone makes their own bed and washes their own dishes, and most people eat out; in these towns there are dozens of small restaurants, and at more than reasonable prices.

Large apartments, belonging to wealthy people, have maid's quarters on the top floor of the building (the so-called "chambres de bonne," which began to be rented to students), or on the ground floor, completely separate and independent from the family for whom they work.

These domestic workers – permanent and rare – receive a monthly salary, and their working hours are 8 hours a day, distributed as follows: from 8 am to 14 pm (therefore, 6 consecutive hours) they clean, make lunch, and tidy the house. Then they stop, rest, study, go to the movies, or date; they return at 19 pm, quickly prepare dinner (no one peels potatoes, grates carrots, or makes stir-fries there, because everything is bought practically ready-made), and at 21 pm, work is finished.

But in Brazil, many one-bedroom apartments have a maid's room, and if the employee lives at the workplace, it becomes difficult to define overtime, beyond the "Maria, bring me a glass of water?". And the idea of ​​providing childcare and education assistance for employees' children under 5 is a pipe dream, because if employers can barely afford the expenses of their own children, imagine how they can manage those of their maids.

Who's going to hire a young woman with two small children if she has to pay for their daycare and education? It's a sure path to unemployment.

Another thing that's often forgotten: in most Brazilian cities, a domestic worker faces two or three hours on multiple modes of transport to get to work, and another two or three hours to get back home, which makes all the difference: public transport in the country is terrible. Please note: I'm not offering solutions, I'm just highlighting the difficulties.

In France, when a normal couple, where both work, have a child, there are government-run (free) daycare centers that make a nanny unnecessary, but in Brazil? Either the mother quits her job to take care of the child or she has to be a very high-paid executive to be able to afford a private daycare or a full-time nanny—look at the complication.

No country has the same labor benefits as Brazil, but this only works when employees have formal employment contracts, which doesn't happen in most cases; and besides overtime, why not also regulate hourly work, which is easy to formalize since it's paid each time it's performed? If this proposed constitutional amendment isn't thoroughly discussed, it could lead to unemployment.

PS: It's hard to know who came out worse in the photo this week: Dilma Rousseff, saying in Rome that the victims are to blame for the tragedies in Petrópolis for not wanting to leave their homes, or Cristina Kirchner, asking the Pope for help with the Falklands issue.

Read also the article from Agência Brasil about the Domestic Workers' Constitutional Amendment: 

Mariana Jungmann
Reporter from Agência Brasil

Brasilia - The Senate plenary today (19) unanimously approved in the first round the proposed amendment to the Constitution (PEC) that expands the labor rights of domestic workers, known as the Domestic Workers' PEC. There were 70 votes in favor and none against. Only one drafting amendment was approved, so the matter retains the text sent by the Chamber of Deputies.

The text extends to domestic workers 16 rights currently guaranteed to other urban and rural workers governed by the Consolidation of Labor Laws (CLT), including mandatory contributions to the Guarantee Fund for Length of Service (FGTS), overtime pay, and night shift differential. Furthermore, it makes a 30-day notice period mandatory before dismissal without just cause or resignation by the worker. This category comprises 6,6 million Brazilians, the majority of whom are women (6,2 million).

By agreement between the president of the Senate, Renan Calheiros (PMDB-AL), and the other senators, the intervals required for the first-round vote were waived. The second-round vote was scheduled for next week, on Tuesday (26). If the Chamber's text is also maintained in the next vote, the matter will proceed to promulgation.