Welfare policy for domestic workrs in Ho Chi Minh city a case study in Tan Binh district

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING UNIVERSITY OF ECONOMICS, HO CHI MINH CITY FULBRIGHT ECONOMICS TEACHING PROGRAM NGUYEN THU HA WELFARE POLICY FOR DOMESTIC WORKERS IN HO CHI MINH CITY, A CASE STUDY IN TAN BINH DISTRICT Public Policy Major Code: 603114 MASTER OF PUBLIC POLICY THESIS ADVISOR Dr JONATHAN R PINCUS HO CHI MINH CITY - 2011 CONTENTS CERTIFICATION i ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ii ABSTRACT iii ABBREVIATIONS iv LIST OF FIGURES v LIST OF TABLES vi CHAPTER - INTRODUCTION 1.1 Problem statement 1.2 Research questions of the study 1.3 The object, scope and purpose of the study 1.4 Research Methods 1.5 The structure of the study CHAPTER - LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Relevant Concepts 2.2 Theoretical background 2.2.1 Demand for domestic workers in Vietnam 2.2.2 Supply of domestic workers in Vietnam 2.2.3 Theoretical background 2.3 Empirical studies 2.3.1 The number of domestic workers all over the world 2.3.2 The situation of domestic workers 10 2.3.3 Policies to protect the rights of domestic workers 11 2.4 Conclusion 12 CHAPTER - RESEARCH METHODS 13 3.1 The purpose of the survey 13 3.2 Subjects of the survey 13 3.3 Survey sample size and sampling methods 14 3.3.1 Sample size 14 3.3.2 Methodology 14 3.4 Data collection instruments 14 3.5 Limitations of the survey method 15 CHAPTER - SURVEY RESULTS 17 4.1 Characteristics of domestic workers 18 4.1.1 Gender of DWs 18 4.1.2 Age of DWs 18 4.1.3 Education 19 4.1.4 Family status 20 4.1.5 How DWs find jobs 21 4.1.6 Years working as domestic worker 22 4.2 DWs’ current job 23 4.2.1 Domestic chores 23 4.2.2 Working hours 24 4.2.3 Length of doing the current job 26 4.2.4 Working conditions 26 4.2.5 Income and expenditure 28 4.2.6 Health and Medical Care 30 4.2.7 Days off, leisure time and entertainment activities 32 4.2.8 Relationship with employers 33 4.2.9 Social contact 35 4.3 Legal awareness of DWs 36 4.4 Dishonesty of DWs 36 4.5 Conclusion 37 CHAPTER - DISCUSSION 38 5.1 Irregular working hours 38 5.2 Problems adopting labor contracts 39 5.3 It is difficult to control issues relevant to DWs 40 5.3.1 Exploitation of domestic workers 40 5.3.2 Employers’ risks 41 5.3.3 The existence of child labor 41 5.4 “This is not a big problem” 42 5.5 Asymmetric information 42 5.6 Lack of the participation of labor unions in protecting DWs 43 5.7 Legal protections for domestic workers 44 5.8 Conclusion 44 CHAPTER - POLICY RECOMMENDATIONS 46 6.1 Recommendations for employers 46 6.2 Recommendations for the Government 46 6.2.1 Support for establishing companies that provide domestic service 46 6.2.2 Issue the Decree guiding domestic services 47 6.2.3 Strengthen propaganda and education to improve legal awareness of laborers and employers 47 6.2.4 Establish Unions to protect DWs 47 CHAPTER - CONCLUSION 49 7.1 Conclusion 49 7.2 Limitations and distributions of the study 50 REFERENCES 51 APPENDIX 55 i CERTIFICATION I certify that I wrote this thesis myself I certify that the study has not been submitted for any other degrees I certify that any help received and all sources used have been acknowledged in this thesis with the best of my knowledge The study does not necessarily reflect the views of the Ho Chi Minh City Economics University or Fulbright Economics Teaching Program Author Nguyen Thu Ha ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENT I would like to express my deep gratitude to my parents and brother who always encourage me in my life, my studying and my career I would like to express my sincere appreciation to my advisor, Dr Jonathan R Pincus, for the continuous support of my study With rich knowledge, experiences, patient, motivation and enthusiasm, his guidance helped me in all the time of research and writing of this thesis Besides my advisor, I am grateful to Ms Dinh Vu Trang Ngan for thoughtful and valuable comments on the survey and the early version of my work I would like to thank to all teachers, librarians, laboratory assistants in Fulbright Economics Teaching Program, who have helped and retransmitted a lot of their knowledge and experience to me I am indebted to many of my relatives, classmates and friends in class MPP3 who supported me to conduct the survey This thesis would not have been possible without their assistances Last but not least, I would like to thank to all my friends, especially Ms Nguyen Thi Thuy Giang, Mr Ta Viet Bac, Mr Duong Tuan Anh, Ms Nguyen Huong Giang, Ms Dang Thi Tuyet Nhung, Ms Ngo Hai Thanh, Ms Vo Thi Hoang Oanh, Ms Nguyen Thi Hong Loan, and Ms Bui Thi Phuong Thao who helped and motivated me in performing the study Nguyen Thu Ha Ho Chi Minh City – April, 2011 iii ABSTRACT This study analyzes practical issues about domestic workers in Ho Chi Minh City, which is based on the theory that domestic workers today are working in bad working condition with low wages, long working hour and face a range of exploitation, abuse, vulnerability and discrimination We conducted a survey to examine the situations of domestic workers in Tan Binh District of Ho Chi Minh City We figured out that in this district the exploitation, discrimination and sexual abuse exist but is not common And because of asymmetric information, employers become victims of dishonest domestic workers when they hire them The market still lacks companies that offer trusted domestic workers and organizations who act to protect domestic worker welfare Therefore, the effective policy recommendations to better these situations are issuing realistic laws to control this market accompanied by actions to implement it such as strengthening the propaganda and education activities in poor areas, supporting the establishment of domestic service companies, and the role of the Women’s Unions in propaganda to change perceptions of both workers and employers Key words: Domestic workers, exploitation, abuse, vulnerability, discrimination, domestic service companies, Women’s Union iv ABBREVIATIONS DWs : Domestic workers HCMC : Ho Chi Minh City NIS : National Institution of Statistic ILO : The International Labor Organization TBD : Tan Binh District USA : The United States of America v LIST OF FIGURES Figure 4-1: Gender of DWs 18 Figure 4-2: Number of DWs in groups of age 19 Figure4-3: Highest certificate of education of DWs 20 Figure 4-4: Family status of domestic workers 21 Figure 4-5: Job status of domestic workers' spouses 21 Figure 4-6: Years working as domestic workers 22 Figure 4-7: The length that domestic workers the current job 26 Figure 4-8: Health of DWs in the sample 30 vi LIST OF TABLES Table 1-1: Subjects of the study Table 3-1: Subjects of the survey 13 Table 4-1: How DWs are recruited 21 Table 4-2: Number of DWs provided work by a domestic worker supplier in the past 22 Table 4-3: Works in day of domestic workers 24 Table 4-4: Working hours of domestic workers 25 Table 4-5: Working conditions of DWs 27 Table 4-6: Meals of DWs 27 Table 4-7: Income of DWs in the sample 28 Table 4-8: Expenditure of DWs in the sample 29 Table 4-9 : Reward for DWs on Tet holiday 29 Table 4-10: Bosses' treatment when DWs get ill 30 Table 4-11: Person who pays DWs medical expense 31 Table 4-12: Medical Insurance with DWs 31 Table 4-13: Agree with one day off in a week 32 Table 4-14: Activities of DWs at rest time 32 Table 4-15: How DWs use the telephone 35 55 APPENDIX Appendix 1: Questionnaire for Domestic workers19 UNIVERSITY OF ECONOMICS, HO CHI MINH CITY FULBRIGHT ECONOMICS TEACHING PROGRAM Interviewer: Nguyễn Thu Hà Class : MPP2 Questionnaire DOMESTIC WORKER SURVEY IN HO CHI MINH CITY Form 1: Questionnaire for Domestic workers Answers Order Questions Question code PESONAL INFORMATION I Year of birth 1.1 Where you come from (permanent address/ current address of your 1.2 family)? Relationship to current employer? 1.3 1= Nephew/niece 2= Grandchild 3= other relatives =non-relatives 1.4 How many times have you moved between districts over the past years? 1.5 When did you move to your present location? Why did you move to here? = In search of employment = Education = Marriage = Family moved 1.6 = Transfer of work place = Visiting only = Occupation training 8= Helping relative = Others Were you working before you took this job? 1.7 1= Yes, 2= No What was your job then? 1=No job 2=Cooking 3= Repairman (engine, TV, Radio , etc) = Sewing = Carpentry = Animal raising 1.8 = Agriculture = Goldsmith = Accounting/Banking 10 = Hair cutting /hair dressing and wedding services 11 = Other specify What kind was your job? 1.9 1= Regular/ steady job 19 This questionnaire is refered from the questionnaires in survey about DWs in Phnompenh: “Child Domestic Workers survey in Phnompenh 2003, Cambodia” of National Institute of Statistics, Ministry of Planning of Cambodia in collaboration with ILO-IPEC 56 II 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 2.7 2.8 2.9 III 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 2= Part-time job 3= Unstable job FAMILY INFORMATION Before working here, whom did you stay with? 1=Parents 2=Grand father/mother 3=Other families 4=Brother/Sister 5=Husband/children 6=Others (Specify) How many people are there in your family? Who was the head of your family? 1=Father 2=Mother 3=Grand father/mother 4=Brother/Sister 5= Your own 6= Husband 7=Others What is his/her occupation? Do your parents/head of family have agricultural land ? If “yes”, write areas in m2 = No = Yes, but not know the size areas Your marriage status? 1=Single (skip to ques 3.1) 2=Marriage How many children you have? Enter number of children, 0=No child Do your husband have any work? What is your husband's job? 0= Unemployment 1=Farmer 2= Fisher 3=hired labor 4= mason coolie 5=retailer 6=Repairman 7=Motorcycle driver 8= pedicab driver 9= Worker in factory 10=Officer 11= Others EDUCATION School attending 1=Never attend school (skip to ques 3.4) 2=Currently studying 3=Stop studying Your highest certification in education? 1=Graduated from primary school 2=Graduated from lower secondary school 3=Graduated upper secondary school 4=Graduated short-term vocational (