More of the Same? Working Conditions of Domestic Workers on Digital Platforms in Mexico
No. 89 (2024-07-02)Author(s)
-
Fernanda TeixeiraUniversity of Antwerp, BelgiumORCID iD: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9088-4388
Abstract
While digital platforms that connect domestic workers with employers have proliferated over the past two decades, academic research on this phenomenon remains limited. These platforms have the potential to improve working conditions in the sector, however, they often seem to perpetuate the job insecurity that has historically characterized domestic work. This article explores whether the working conditions of domestic workers on digital platforms differ significantly from traditional ones. Based on 24 interviews with workers in Mexico, it examines four key aspects of their conditions: (i) hours and schedule flexibility; (ii) workload; (iii) income and benefits; and (iv) discrimination, violence, and harassment. The findings reveal incremental improvements in the conditions of digital workers but no significant break from the historical precariousness. The article is intended to enrich the emerging literature on platforms dedicated to domestic work, especially in the context of the global south and Latin America, where they have received little attention so far. It focuses on the in-person employment relationship between workers and their employers, which has been little explored in previous research. The study contributes to a more comprehensive understanding of labor dynamics in this emerging work modality and highlights the need for labor regulations that include domestic workers connected through digital platforms.
References
Artza, Larraitz Lexartza. 2021. El trabajo doméstico remunerado en América Latina y el Caribe, a diez años del Convenio núm. 189. Lima: OIT, Oficina Regional para América Latina y el Caribe. https://www.ilo.org/es/publications/el-trabajo-domestico-remunerado-en-america-latina-y-el-caribe-diez-anos-del
Bensusán, Graciela. 2019. Perfil del trabajo doméstico remunerado en México. Ciudad de México: OIT para México y Cuba. https://ilo.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/discovery/delivery/41ILO_INST:41ILO_V2/1259519090002676
Bensusán, Graciela y Héctor Santos. 2022. “Digital Platform Work in Latin America: Challenges and Perspectives for Its Regulation”. En Work and Labour Relations in Global Platform Capitalism, editado por Julieta Haidar y Maarten Keune, 236-260. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing.
Blanchard, Olivia. 2023. Las plataformas digitales de cuidados y sus servicios workertech en América Latina y el Caribe. Análisis de un sector incipiente. Digital Future Society; BID. https://publications.iadb.org/es/las-plataformas-digitales-de-cuidados-y-sus-servicios-workertech-en-america-latina-y-el-caribe
Blofield, Merike y Merita Jokela. 2018. “Paid Domestic Work and the Struggles of Care Workers in Latin America”. Current Sociology 66 (4): 531-546. https://doi.org/10.1177/0011392118765259
Braun, Virginia y Victoria Clarke. 2006. “Using Thematic Analysis in Psychology”. Qualitative Research in Psychology 3 (2): 77-101. https://doi.org/10.1191/1478088706qp063oa
Cebollada Gay, Marta. 2021. Mecanismos de intermediación laboral en el trabajo del hogar remunerado en la Ciudad de México. Ciudad de México: OIT para México y Cuba. https://ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---americas/---ro-lima/---ilo-mexico/documents/publication/wcms_836285.pdf
Dib, Daniela. 2021. “Homely Acquires Aliada and Consolidates as a Cleaning Services Marketplace”. Contexto. Latinamerican VC, Startup and Tech News, 23 de noviembre. https://contxto.com/en/news/homely-acquires-aliada-consolidates-cleaning-services-marketplace/
Durin, Séverine, María Eugenia de la O y Santiago Bastos. 2014. Trabajadoras en la sombra. Dimensiones del servicio doméstico latinoamericano. Monterrey: Ciesas.
Hernández, Maricarmen. 2020. “Sufren trabajadoras domésticas desigualdad y discriminación”. El Sol de Puebla, jueves 29 de octubre. https://www.elsoldepuebla.com.mx/doble-via/sufren-trabajadoras-domesticas-desigualdad-y-discriminacion-cuyoaco-puebla-sindicato-nacional-de-trabajadoras-del-hogar-sinactraho-karla-edith-patricia-roberto-comision-nacional-de-los-salarios-minimos-conasami-5949161.html
Hidalgo Cordero, Kruskaya. 2022. Domestic Code in the Flesh: Stories of Workers in Cleaning Service apps. International Inequalities Institute, London School of Economics and Political Science. https://www.codigodomestico.com/en/pdf/domestic_code_in_the_flesh.pdf
Hunt, Abigail y Emma Samman. 2020. “Domestic Work and the Gig Economy in South Africa: Old Wine in New Bottles?”. Anti-Human Trafficking Review 15: 102-121. https://doi.org/10.14197/atr.201220156
ILO. 2021. Making decent work a reality for domestic workers: Progress and prospects ten years after the adoption of the Domestic Work-ers Convention, 2011 (No. 189). Ginebra: ILO. https://www.ilo.org/publications/making-decent-work-reality-domestic-workers-progress-and-prospects-asia-and
Juárez, Blanca. 2023. “Trabajadoras del hogar van contra partes de la reforma de seguridad social”. El Economista, jueves 4 de mayo. https://www.eleconomista.com.mx/capitalhumano/Trabajadoras-del-hogar-van-contra-partes-de-la-reforma-de-seguridad-social-20230504-0012.html
Khan, Hameed Maria, Jannine Williams, Penny Williams y Robyn Mayes. 2023. “Caring in the Gig Economy: A Relational Perspective of Decent Work”. Work, Employment and Society 1-21. https://doi.org/10.1177/09500170231173586
McDonald, Paula, Penny Williams y Robyn Mayes. 2021. “Means of Control in the Organization of Digitally Intermediated Care Work”. Work, employment & Society 35 (5): 872-890. https://doi.org/10.1177/09500170209691
Montaño García, Carlos. 2022. “Platform Protest in Mexico”. Leeds Index Country Report 1. https://business.leeds.ac.uk/download/downloads/id/432/leeds-index-platform-protest-in-mexico.pdf
Páramo, Andrea Santiago y Carlos Piñeyro Nelson. 2021. “Aliada and Alia: Contrasting For-profit and Non-profit Platforms for Domestic Work in Mexico and the United States”. En A Modern Guide to Labour and the Platform Economy, editado por Jan Drahokoupil y Kurt Vandaele, 242-256. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing.
Pereyra, Francisca, Lorena Poblete y Ania Tizziani. 2023. Plataformas digitales de servicio doméstico y condiciones laborales. El caso de Argentina. Buenos Aires: OIT para Argentina. https://www.ilo.org/buenosaires/publicaciones/WCMS_877416/lang--es/index.htm
Pulignano, Valeria, Claudia Marà y Milena Franke. 2023. “Informal Employment on Domestic Care Platforms: A Study on the Individualization of Risk and Unpaid Labour in Mature Market Contexts”. Transfer: European Review of Labour and Research 29 (3): 1-16. https://doi.org/10.1177/10242589231177353
Rathi, Aayush y Ambika Tandon. 2020. Platforms, Power, & Politics: Perspectives from domestic & care work in India. The Centre for Internet and Society; International Development Research Centre. https://cis-india.org/raw/platforms-power-and-politics-pdf
Rojas García, Georgina y Nidia Contreras López. 2018. “Resistencia activa de las trabajadoras del hogar en México: Talleres, aprendizaje y empoderamiento”. Revista Latinoamericana de Antropología del Trabajo 2 (3): 1-37. https://ojs.ceil-conicet.gov.ar/index.php/lat/article/view/346
Rojas García, Georgina y Mónica Patricia Toledo González. 2017. “Paid Domestic Work: Gender and the Informal Economy in Mexico”. Latin American Perspectives 45 (1): 146-162. https://doi.org/10.1177/0094582X17734545
Rojas García, Georgina y Mónica Patricia Toledo González. 2018. “Working Poor Women in Mexico Facing another Crisis: Domestic Workers Struggling with Structural Disadvantages and the 2008 Recession”. En Global Women’s Work: Perspectives on Gender and Work in the Global Economy, editado por by Beth A. English, Mary E. Frederickson y Olga Samiguel-Valderrama, 1-25. Nueva York: Routledge.
Saldana-Tejeda, Abril. 2014. “Tlazolteotl: ‘The Filth Deity’ and the sexualization of paid domestic workers in Mexico”. Sexualities 17 (1-2): 194-212. https://doi.org/10.1177/1363460713511102
Tandon, Ambika y Aayush Rathi. 2021. “Care in the Platform Economy: Interrogating the Digital Organisation of Domestic Work in India”. En The Gig Economy: Workers and Media in the Age of Convergence, editado por Brian Dolber, Michelle Rodino-Colocino, Chenjerai Kumanyika y Todd Wolfson, 1-11. Nueva York: Routledge.
Tandon, Ambika y Abhishek Sekharan. 2022. “Labouring (on) the App: Agency and Organisation of Work in the Platform Economy”. Gender & Development 30 (3): 687-706. https://doi.org/10.1080/13552074.2022.2130515
Ticona, Julia y Alexandra Mateescu. 2018. “Trusted Strangers: Carework Platforms’ Cultural Entrepreneurship in the On-Demand Economy”. New Media & Society 20 (11): 4384-4404. https://doi.org/10.1177/1461444818773727
Tilly, Chris, Georgina Rojas García y Nik Theodore. 2019. “Intersectional Histories, Overdetermined Fortunes: Understanding Mexican and Us Domestic Worker Movements”. En Gendering Struggles against Informal and Precarious Work, editado por Rina Agarwala y Jennifer Jihye Chun, 121-145. Leeds: Emerald Publishing.
Tizziani, Ania y Lorena Poblete. 2022. “La intervención de plataformas digitales en el trabajo doméstico remunerado en Argentina”. Sociedade e Cultura 25: 1-36. https://doi.org/10.5216/sec.v25.71033
Torres, Natalia. 2020. Historia del movimiento de las personas trabajadoras del hogar en México: CACEH, el Sindicato y acontecimientos recientes. Documento de consulta de WIEGO n° 16. Manchester: WIEGO. https://www.wiego.org/sites/default/files/2020-09/WIEGO_Resources16_SP_Web.pdf
Velázquez Narváez, Yolanda, Fabiola Peña Cárdenas y Lucía Ruíz Ramos. 2020. “Trabajadoras del hogar: grupo vulnerable al maltrato y desigualdad laboral”. Revista de Estudios de Género, La Ventana 6 (51): 138-162. https://doi.org/10.32870/lv.v6i51.7086
License
Copyright (c) 2024 Revista de Estudios Sociales
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.