By IANS/EFE,
Mexico City : About two million Mexicans are employed as domestic workers, with women accounting for about 90 percent of such employees, and the majority lack employment contracts and are not registered in the social security system, said the National Council to Prevent Discrimination, or Conapred.
They are subjected to discrimination, long work days, poor pay and other forms of abuse.
The figures come from a survey of domestic workers that was conducted in association with UN Women and the International Labor Organization, or ILO, Conapred said in a report presented to the Senate.
The 2010 National Survey on Discrimination in Mexico found that 38 percent of domestic workers consider excessive work and low pay the main problems facing them, while 19.3 percent complained of mistreatment and discrimination, among other abuses, as well as the lack of labour rights.
Just 1.5 million of Mexico’s 26 million households, according to National Institute of Statistics and Geography figures, have domestic workers.
Although the households that hire domestic workers tend to have higher incomes, they pay among the lowest wages.
Pay for domestic workers tends to be among the lowest of any occupation, with 43.7 percent of those toiling in this sector earning between $35 and $71.
Some 90 percent of domestic workers lack employment contracts and working conditions are established via a “verbal agreement” with the employer.
Just 6.7 percent of domestic employees are registered with the social security system, the report said.