Luanda – The General Labour Inspectorate (IGT) recorded four hundred complaints from domestic workers during the first semester of the year, the Secretary of State for Labour and Social Security, Pedro José Filipe told ANGOP Friday in Luanda.
Pedro José Filipe highlighted the arbitrary dismissals, non-payment of wages, disrespect for time limits and mistreatment among the top complains.
The official praised the growth of the level of legal awareness that the different workers in the country present, including domestic workers.
According to the Secretary of State, the General Labour Inspectorate has been acting very incisively, as a result of the growing legal awareness of workers who turn to MAPTSS to raise their concerns.
He said that more than 90 percent of the mediation and conciliation cases that went through the General Labour Inspectorate had a favourable outcome for the worker.
“We have a responsibility to ensure and safeguard the well-being and dignity of workers, but we also have an obligation to remind them that they have duties,' he said.
As for the regulation of Domestic Work, he said that there is no tendency or intention to “diminish” this fringe, having stressed that the additive “domestic” is exactly because of the context in which this work is done.
According to Pedro Filipe, whether they are men or women, domestic workers are all those who work in a domestic context, including cooks, laundresses, gardeners, nannies and drivers.
The official said that in recent times there has been an increasing trend of men working as cooks and in other activities 'classically' associated with ladies.
Workers in the informal sector
According to the official, in Angola most of the workers are in the informal sector, many of them are not registered in the Social Security database.
“Angola has more than 80 percent of its workforce of working age in the informal sector, this in absolute numbers we are talking about another nine million workers in the informal sector,” he emphasized.
Pedro Filipe stressed that of this range of informal workers a third is domestic, that is, about three million.
INSS mobilization workers for registration
As for the INSS, it reported that currently seven thousand and 100 domestic workers are registered and contribute regularly, a number that it considers very modest.
“The registration of the domestic worker in the INSS should not be a concern only of MAPTESS, but of the whole society,” he said.
The official pointed out that people have the idea that it is a burden to contribute to social security.
He clarified that for the mandatory regime, the INSS has reduced rates. The employer instead of eight percent pays six and the worker, instead of three percent, pays two percent.
