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 1 - INTRODUCTION 1 1.1. Problem statement 1 1.2. Research questions of the study 2 1.3. The object, scope and purpose of the study 3 1.4. Research Methods 4 1.5. The structure of the study 4 CHAPTER 2 - LITERATURE REVIEW 5 2.1. Relevant Concepts 5 2.2. Theoretical background 6 2.2.1. Demand for domestic workers in Vietnam 6 2.2.2. Supply of domestic workers in Vietnam 7 2.2.3. Theoretical background 8 2.3. Empirical studies 8 2.3.1. The number of domestic workers all over the world 8 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 3 - 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 4 - 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 5 - 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 6 - 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 7 - 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 do 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 3 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 [...]... primary school Thirty-five percent of DWs completed primary school and 27 percent completed junior high school Only one girl was a university student Another girl was studying in upper secondary school Two DWs have graduated from vocational school, but they could not make a living using their vocational qualifications so they have become DWs Among 11 employees who did not graduate from primary school,... long-term vocational (1-2 years) 1 Graduated upper secondary school 2 Graduated from lower secondary school 11 Graduated from primary school 14 Not graduated from primary school Quantity 0 11 5 10 15 However, two boys in the sample did not want to go to school One 13-year-old boy only finished class four, after which he dropped out of school He preferred working as a repairman to studying Up to now... become DWs Among 11 employees who did not graduate from primary school, three women have never been to school They even cannot write their names clearly Almost all of them (both young and old people) originated from poor families Their parents could not afford their school fees They had to drop out of school and went to work to earn money to help their parents 20 Figure4-3: Highest certificate of education... school He preferred working as a repairman to studying Up to now he has studied repair for two years Another 16-year-old boy graduated from lower secondary school, but he decided that school was not a suitable place and did not want to come back school He also wants to be a repairman 4.1.4 Family status The workforce of domestic service is diversified like others labor markets Fifty-five percent of DWs... Helping family business 10 Take children to/from school Male 4 8 One 14-year-old girl had to do both housework and help doing business work Although the works she did is not much compared to the work of an adult, she is still small so this was heavy work for her The rest of the sample (37 people) did not have to do additional work apart from domestic chores as first agreed With DWs who were business... said this situation is because domestic labor is in the home and considered as a private matter They are dependent on the employer It is a challenge to monitor their lives in the (IRIN, 2010) In Ho Chi Minh City of Vietnam, many DWs are children Most of them live in their They have to work from 13 to16 hours a day, with low wages, no days off, depending on employers They often cannot get in touch with... proportion of the workforce, ranging between four to ten percent of total employment in developing countries and up to 2.5 percent of total employment in industrialized countries (ILO, 2010) In Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) in 2006, there were an estimated 2,162 children in domestic work (ILO, 2006) In fact, children are a small part in this workforce, and the total is much greater 2 DWs have common characteristics... business domestic workers Girl under 15 years old X X X X Boy under 15 years old X X X X Women X X X X Men X X X X The study concentrates on the empirical facts of domestic work in Tan Binh District, Ho Chi Minh City, and the perceptions of these DWs Although we cannot assume that this group is statistically representative of all DWs in the city, the intention is not to sample systematically We take Tan Binh... the pressure of family life in urban areas Vietnam is one of the countries which has the highest proportion of women in the labor force (83 percent) (Tan Duc, 2011) Traditionally in Vietnam domestic chores are carried out by women living in the household When they expend more time in the labor force, the time to do housework is reduced, therefore, they often employ DWs to replace them in the kitchen... when working outside Urban citizens can pay for DWs with wages that are lower than their opportunity cost of time (Do Huyen My, 2009) Higher incomes allow them to hire a domestic worker to do domestic chores for them One of main factors contributing to demand for domestic work is the aging population ( -ILO, 2007) There are changes in family structure Families 7 with two generations are replacing three-generation . 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. 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. 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