Home help firms not doing enough to ensure staff welfare

Belgium’s household help firms – so-called "titres-services" or "dienstencheques" companies – must do more to guarantee the wellbeing of their (primarily) female workers, according to a report by Belgium’s labour inspectorate, the federal department responsible for monitoring working conditions.

It is “high time that the various governments punished the companies concerned, given the extent of damage they are causing,” said Belgium’s three main trade unions in response to the report. They are demanding tougher action, with sanctions including the removal of licences in the worst cases.

The labour inspectorate visited 40 cleaning firms last year that had not been inspected during previous campaigns. A number of infringements were found, and 40 written warnings were issued.

The main findings were that:

• 70% of companies inspected had no risk analysis specific to pregnancy and maternity
• 80% had no chemical risk analysis (for example to assess potentially harmful cleaning products)
• 85% did not analyse musculoskeletal risks from the physical work involved
• 60% did not monitor the health of employees before they started work
• 40% did not monitor employees’ health regularly
• 40% of the companies visited did not carry out sufficient checks in customers’ homes to ensure the equipment provided for the home helpers was suitable.

Despite slight improvements in prior health monitoring and equipment verification compared to previous surveys, “these results are far from being good enough,” said the FGTB, CSC and CGSLB trade unions in a joint statement.

The unions are particularly offended by the sector’s attitude towards protecting pregnant workers, despite the fact that 97% of titres-service vouchers are issued to women.

One worker, Arielle, told RTBF that the work was “very physical and very tiring, a lot of sport,” adding that she suffers back and leg problems because of her job.