The Exclusion of Health and Safety Regulation for Domestic Workers Hired by Families: Discrimination or Omission of the Legislator?

The protection of domestic workers is practically non-existent in health and safety at workplace. The EU and some national regulations regulations (for example, the Spanish case) on this issue have excluded domestic workers due to the difficulties to apply the duty of prevention following all the obligations: risk assessment, providing personal protective equipment, professional training, medical test, etc. The mentioned difficulties arise when the employer is a family and not an enterprise. It seems clear that there is an absence of balancing interests at stake: the health and safety of the household employee and the onus on the employer. In addition, the judicial cases point out that there is an empty and programmatic duty of safety. It is convenient to enhance that it means an undervaluation of the most important fundamental rights of workers: the right to life. At the end, it seems that there is an unequal treatment with respect to workers who perform the same tasks but have been hired by companies. The difficulties of the domestic workers may be resolved if the regulation would create some tools in order to provide professional training for domestic workers and families. The professionalism of domestic workers may improve their working conditions including the health and safety at workplace.

The Exclusion of Health and Safety Regulation for Domestic Workers Hired by Families: Discrimination or Omission of the Legislator? Articles