Turkey's household workers left unemployed, uninsured amid coronavirus epidemic

Filiz Gazi / DUVAR

Due to the coronavirus epidemic, large numbers of women working as housecleaners, caretakers and baby-sitters have lost their jobs, the majority of them having worked uninsured. Since they are legally not considered workers, there is no legal mechanism they can use to defend themselves. 

There are not sufficient statistics regarding the number of household workers in Turkey. According to figures from the International Labor Organization (ILO), between 4 and 10 pct. of the workforce in developing countries consists of household workers, which would suggest more than 1 million in Turkey. 

Official statistics published by the government do not reflect this reality, given the uninsured status of such workers and the fact that the majority of women working as baby-sitters or caretakers are migrants working informally. 

One 47-year-old housecleaner said that after the coronavirus hit Turkey, she was worried that she would stop getting calls from clients, but at the same time she needed the work. 

“After corona, they started calling me and telling me not to come. One of them is a cancer patient, they said 'don't come, it could be risky for the both of us,' which is true. I'm afraid, but I go to clean the stairs [in an apartment building]. Out of necessity, I go but I go in fear. My husband isn't working, one of my children is getting ready for university. Both of my children were fired from their jobs, one was working at a printing press, the other at a jeweler. We have no other income. What I am supposed to do?” 

The housecleaner said that she has never been insured while working. “No one even offered,” she said. “There was a house that I went to since my son was seven years old. This year there was a bit of bad blood between us. Never once did they offer to provide insurance. Now my son is 22. Not one place I worked at offered. I didn't even know it was possible, that I had rights. Now the ship has sailed, I'm 47 years old. Maybe in 1-2 years I won't be able to work anymore. I'm young but not on the inside,” she said. 

“They get sent on leave without pay. As the union, we announced this in a recent press statement. Who is going to come out of this epidemic with their honor? That is what we are struggling for. The mask of capitalism is quickly being stripped off,” said Sinem Atakul, who volunteers for the İmece Household Workers Union and directed the documentary Wounded Pride, which centers around the struggles of household workers. 

“For example [opposition right-wing Good Party leader] Meral Akşener's housecleaner caught coronavirus. That was because she was in contact with many people coming and going. The first people catching it are the women that do this type of work in the home. During the first days after the virus reached Turkey, it was said that women are less likely to catch the virus, as if some sort of genetic information was being presented. These women are providing care services, for children and the elderly. A man can go to the hospital right away but most women don't even have the access. That is why they don't have a place in the statistics. I'm not just talking about this epidemic, most of these women still work while they are ill,” Atakul said.

46-year-old Zeynep Ayvalitaş has been a household worker since 2008. “When I first started I didn't know my rights. They wouldn't allow me to sit at the same table, and they gave me moldy bread,” she said about a family she once worked for. Today, Ayvalitas is among the board members of the İmece Household Workers Union. 

“I found out that a place I worked at for four years was not paying for my insurance, but how did I learn? We were like mother and daughter, [my client] would say that. One day she said 'you stole my guest's money.' Later when their guest had found the money they called me back. I said 'one only falls into that trap once' and when I left the job I learned that they were not paying for my insurance. Now at the home I work in, I eat at the same table. Most of my friends work on a daily basis without insurance,” Ayvalitaş said.