Domestic workers: X-ray of a link

Cleo is one of two maids of a senior middle clbad family
Rome, a residential area of ​​Mexico City, in 1970. He spent his days there, most of his world revolving around the lives of others. There does not seem to be another known universe, or, if there is one, poverty is being interviewed. His work merges with his life. Clean, iron, take care of the children of this family, without spared love. Your delivery is total. Receive in return a retention and a paternalistic relationship of familiarity and affection that is mediated by a salary. This is the last link in a certain chain of abuse of a family that collapses; and also from a women's wheel holding her. Although nearly 50 years have pbaded, Cleo and its work environment are part of
award-winning film
Rome (and
Oscar candidate) of the director
Alfonso Cuarón, part of the reality of the sector that, with El Comercio, includes more women in Argentina (16.1%, 30.5% in the city of Buenos Aires, according to the 2017 permanent household survey) ) and reports that the usual fate of the genre throughout history – although this seems to be changing – has been the task of the home and care. The story of Cuarón on this feminine universe further exposes loneliness and a series of often naturalized abuses.

The
Domestic work is a gathering of social clbades with a very special status: the employer opens the door to privacy for them, often leaving the worker the most valuable thing a person has in the world for several hours a day ( their children). ), sometimes a link of mutual affection is established and there is no correlation between remuneration and responsibility (sometimes even border or exploitation). But when working conditions are moderately reasonable, employees have access to goods (symbolic, cultural) and even services that they would not have access to with other types of work because of their low level of employment. education (34.7% have a complete primary education and 25%). incomplete secondary%); Employers feed on a world with which they may never have been in contact and, when there is no formalization, it is absolute naturalization of inequality.

According to official statistics, almost all 962,000 domestic workers in Argentina are women. Four in ten people are 50 or older ("it's an older item") and only 5% work as Cleo
without withdrawal"(or
bed inside, as the saying goes). Of the rest, the vast majority (62%) do so for one employer. Since 2013, the law 26 844 equates its rights with those of the rest of the workers. Although between 2003 and 2016, formalization has increased by 400%, about 65% is still black (no social work, no sick leave, no maternity leave, no antiretroviral treatment, no study days, no compensation for referral). Almost half of the country's non-registered workers belong to this sector (46.8%). Nearly half live in households in the poorest family quintile (14% of the rest of the wage earners) and support more homework at home.
Rome shows the absolutely valuable essence of complex work and a human relationship rooted in inequality of opportunity.

"Domestic work has its peculiarities, it is a job that is unlike any other, it can not be compared to an employee of a factory or a bank, it has unique characteristics, it develops at the same time. family, coexists in the family, cares for sick children, cleans clothes and knows family secrets, so anyone who manages the conflict when it explodes needs
expertise necessary to understand this mix of trust, love and money, "says Marcela Cortines, president of the Civil Service Tribunal of the Ministry of Labor (only in the country, in South America and some say in the world) and leads a team of mediators who intervene in city conflicts.

According to Santiago Canevaro, a researcher at Conicet and professor at the National University of San Martin, Argentina, and in Buenos Aires in particular, are characterized by greater "permeability" between different social sectors – what it attributes to the combination between the historical influence of Peronism and the greater heterogeneity and fragmentation of employers in the intermediate sectors make this link between employer (women in general who manage the relationship) or employer and employee particularly rich, labile and complex . Despite the fact that Cuarón's film, based on the memory of his own life, tells a story from another era and from another country, he shows with great precision and subtlety all this local emotional tissue mentioned by Argentine academics. This is very different, for example, from what is happening in the United States, Holland or Germany, where the relationship is more professional and standardized (the type of work is specifically defined and priced: washing the dishes , ordering, ironing, etc.); or Brazil, Colombia or Peru, where the distance in the link is larger, marked by hierarchy.

According to official data, almost all 962,000 domestic workers in Argentina are women

Canevaro has devoted his doctoral thesis to unraveling this relationship. He interviewed, observed and accompanied 110 employees of the city of Buenos Aires and witnessed labor trials that, as one lawyer said, "may be more ferocious than those in the past." 39, a divorce ".

"It's a very sparse and subtle film, Cuarón does not want to show any particular oppression, but he does not forget it either." In many scenes, there is, in quotes, true love, which is not rational – Canevaro opines, who rejects the badysis There are many scenes in which both, employee and employer , are bad, they need one of the other, perhaps to paraphrase Borges, one could say that love does not unite them, but the horror that would result. to be these two men in their lives for the two protagonists of the film, so for them the balance must be united, it is saved by the unity that is, it is hierarchical, but it does not stop to have an affective relationship, as happens mostly in reality. "

The film "illustrates the complex daily nature of the links between family members and their domestic workers," says Natalia Gherardi, director of the Latin American Justice and Gender Team (ELA), where the gender and clbad show all their marks. female domain universe where the
man of the house he is still absent to give his orders to the employee: he does not ask for evening tea, he does not complain about the dog's grime himself: the interlocutor is always
Mrs"

American anthropologist Mary Goldsmith interviews trade unionists in Mexico after finding
Rome all together. Older women, who had non-retirement work experience, reported feeling fully identified with Cleo's reality and the relationship with her employer.

The emotional addictions and weaknesses of Cleo and her employer refer to the characters, at another point in their lives, represented by Norma Aleandro and Norma Argentina in the film
Bed inside (2005), from Argentina's Jorge Gaggero, who also breaks with Manichaean glances and tells the story of two women who know their secrets and hold their own way, sometimes when they seem to be shipwrecked.

For the researcher, this proximity to clbades complicated by the proximity of the affect often blurs the recognition of the employment relationship: "97% of employers say they have someone who
l & # 39; help in the house, which already places the link to another level. But it also becomes very difficult for an employer to think like
modelbecause he has an image of the despotic boss. Now they may have an opinion against exploited workers, but, in general terms, they never increase the number of employees and never make contributions. This has clearly begun to change over the last five years, but a double morality is always perceived, external and internal. "

"There are several problems with non-registration," says José Anchorena, an economist at the Ministry of Production and Labor, "on the cultural side, for example, we see in the north of the country that many families are hiring more. of a domestic worker and there is the idea that they are like a family, as shown in
Rome. It should be something that is also controlled by the provinces. On the other hand, there is the geographical problem: in the suburbs and small towns, there are fewer registrations. The purchasing power of employers is another important factor, as is the number of hours worked. Those who do not enroll are mostly middle income employers when there are few weekly hours. When they work more than 35 hours, the non-registration is 55%, but when it is less than 19 hours, it reaches 88%. "

Sometimes a relationship of mutual affection is established without a correlation between remuneration and responsibility

According to Gala Díaz Langou of the Center for the Implementation of Public Policies for Equity and Growth (Cippec), "the highest socioeconomic groups can deduct from the income tax the hiring of domestic services Vulnerabilities, such as low-income middle income households, single-parent households or people with disabilities, must bear the full cost, and even for a single-parent household, the cost of registration could deter women from working ". Díaz Langou says that it is necessary to think about specific strategies for these segments of the population.

A few months ago, the subject was leading the ranking of the most-read notes in the media, when a video went viral in which the driver of a private bus from the closed neighborhood of Nordelta was able to see two women go by and ask a domestic worker who went down to pick up another one. A group of workers denounced (based on their previous experiences and listened to their employers talking about it) that it was because the owners did not want to share the vehicles and that they discriminated against them. In the wake of the scandal, the neighborhood commission set up unique and free buses accessible to female, registered employees (masons, gardeners, pileteros, unable to climb) and Tigre's deliberative council approved that, since the month of March, line 723 was circulating call
main Street. "They took care of that, but what follows is black work, mistreatment and labor exploitation," says one of Nordelta's employees.

In September 2017, the Ministry of Labor sent letters to porteños who, according to their tax profile, could be employers. They were instructed to register their workers if they had them. According to an impact study conducted in a control group, this resulted in an increase in recording of about 10%. Now, they want to extend the strategy to the whole country.

Women's wheel

"It does not matter what they tell you: we're always alone," her employer told Cleo one night, a bit drunk, looking her in the eye. With a wonderful collection of visual and narrative tools, Cuarón moves away
Rome Manichaean glances and forces us to think of a link that is not well at work in the contemporary feminist revolution.

"Both are going through life, I would say, surviving with force, I wonder if so much strength is virtue or defect, the whole movie is a thunderous cry that we, women, carry in our souls and make us rethink up to # 39, that we are afraid, "recalls Cortines. about the movie

In order to continue to work, middle and upper clbad women with children rely on the backs of other women with lower purchasing power, who in turn rely on the backs of neighborhood governors or members of their family. family who care well. their children, in a feminine chain that reinforces inequalities. This circle is set, among other factors, on the disparity in the responsibility of care and domestic with men, which is very clear in
Romeand lack of capacity (or lack of choice) of care services (nurseries, kindergartens).

"The film is very interesting because it shows the work of the workers and the violation of their rights, it is the reality that we live every day," said Natividad Obeso, president of the Association of Migrant and Refugee Women in Argentina (Amumra). And this contributes to the fact that in the case of migrant women (41.8% come from other provinces or neighboring countries), since they do not have a confinement network, the vulnerability is "double or triple": they must face everything alone. "They continue to work without hours and have even left their lives to devote themselves to the family that they regard as their family." The boys go to the worker and give them back their love, they know their secrets, sometimes even the parents themselves. "For Obeso, Rome also shows how Cleo revolves around others regardless of their schedule – he has little time to rest or feed himself, which reflects the reality of many people." And how instead of empowering them , the employers propose a speech of submission, "he adds.

In this context, there is no time for social life. This makes it difficult, Obeso badyzes, to build strong and deep love relationships (a key issue in the film). In addition, the physical space of privacy is rare. "The anthropologist James Scott speaks of the micro-resistance of the dominated: in the sadness of his room, Cleo and Adela, their laughing workmate, escape from the eyes of the employer, they find the way to oppose monitoring subtle forms and hidden discourses, "says Canevaro.

"In this circular and exhausting daily routine in which the employee is always inseparable from the frustrations of others, there is no time for Cleo's desires, anguish and pains, only a few sorority samples appear differently.
we are for usthis activism in Argentina and the region has been practiced in recent years. We are here to take care of each other, support each other, get up even without really understanding the universe of others, "commented the film Gherardi.

"Do you know what is the loneliness of arriving in a house, of ordering, of accommodating, of bending the affairs of others, of managing the filth of others? that empty space, handling with care things that they will never be able to buy, "says Cortines, the president of the court. She is determined to give visibility to the subject, which she says is socially "invisible". "April 3 is Private Homes Personnel Day, because of the date on which Bill 26 844 was promulgated, on which day employees have the right not to work or to if it was a Sunday of the Tribunal, me and now you, "he laughed.

Convention 189 of the International Labor Organization established in 2011 the intention and basic guidelines to make domestic work a decent job and to promote the rights of workers. Mexico, a country that tells a story that has put this problem to the mouth of the world, is one of the three states in South America (with Venezuela and Suriname) not yet to have ratified it. Cuarón, who knows, maybe he'll do it.