A/HRC/44/51
and governments to endorse principles and take concrete actions to help close the gender
gap, including the setting of targets and quotas.
Valuing paid care and domestic work
After a finding of historic gender-based undervaluation of the sector and following
sustained campaigning by unions, workers and community organizations, wages were
increased in the care sector, setting new minimum rates of pay for workers. The decision
resulted in wage increases of between 19 and 41 per cent for care workers.
Spurred by the ratification of the ILO Domestic Workers Convention, 2011 (No.
189), by 11 countries in Latin America, efforts have been made to ensure that domestic
workers are covered under minimum wage provisions equalizing domestic worker pay with
other workers. Some countries in the region are also encouraging collective bargaining in
the sector to improve pay and conditions.
A number of member States of the European Union have introduced incentives to
encourage the formal employment of domestic workers by using income tax deductions and
tax credits along with a strong regulatory framework to increase the levels of formal
employment in domestic work.
Increasing men’s participation in female-dominated areas
Non-profit organizations in a country in Western Europe are working to recruit men
into the social care industry, particularly in housing, care for the elderly and social work
with vulnerable families, through a recruitment campaign in schools and colleges, as well
as targeting veterans.
Ensuring all women workers can enjoy their rights, without discrimination, including
informal workers
50.
A key concern for women’s enjoyment of human rights in the changing world of
work is the growth of non-standard forms of employment, through increased subcontracting
and use of on-demand labour, platform work, temporary contracts, self-employment,
variable hour contracts, zero-hour contracts and other casual work. 30 While new forms of
work may provide women a route out of more vulnerable and arduous forms of informal
work, such as family work in agriculture or street vending, job insecurity, low pay and lack
of access to social protection will continue to entrench economic insecurity and structural
discrimination at work for many women. Work undertaken by women at the bottom of the
supply chain, for example as agricultural workers in plantations, is often hazardous, and
exposes them to harmful chemicals and poor conditions. Much of this work, particularly
microtask work done by women, is also often hidden and invisible, increasing the risk of
exploitation.
51.
Realizing women’s human rights in the changing world of work requires workers in
new forms of work to have access to human rights. There is an urgent need to extend rights
and entitlements to all workers, with a focus on women informal workers, including paid
sick leave, annual leave, working time limits and rights to health and safety at work. In
some contexts, access to menstrual leave is an important enabler of women’s access to
decent work.
52.
Paid domestic work is a very important and expanding source of wage employment
for women, but the majority of it is informal and poor quality, with high risks of abuse and
violence. Similarly, waste picking is an important source of income for women in some
countries and contributes to environmental sustainability. However, women workers who
engage in these forms of work are too often denied basic labour rights and are vulnerable to
discrimination, stigma, harassment and violence. Furthermore, ensuring the rights of
women informal workers in agriculture, including equal ownership of and control over land
30
14
Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), OECD Employment Outlook
2019: The Future of Work (Paris, 2019).