Work intensifications, injuries and legal exclusions for paid domestic workers in Montréal, Québec

Abstract

There is increasing research on the intensification of work in the post-1980s time period. The focus on flexibility in management practices has resulted in more tasks being offloaded onto workers who must then adjust their time-use to accommodate the greater workload. Studies of work intensification are not new to manufacturing production and there is increasing attention to unpaid domestic labour and service sectors. One industry, however, that has been neglected by these studies is paid domestic work where employers are individuals or families. Drawing on the traditions of feminist political economy and geography, I argue that the socio-spatial specificity of paid domestic work contributes an emphasis on workplace injury and labour law exclusion to intensification of work paradigms. Based on qualitative interviews conducted in Montréal, Québec from 2013 to 2015, I show how paid domestic workers intertwine narratives about work intensification and workplace injury yet remain excluded from the Act respecting occupational health and safety and the Workers’ Compensation Act in Québec. Migrant women caregivers are disproportionately impacted by these exclusions and I show how the Filipino Women’s Organization in Québec (PINAY) is at the forefront of challenging these exclusions. In conclusion, I propose an approach that combines feminist geography and political economy to consider how time-squeezes impacting individual or household employers may be intensifying the workloads of their paid domestic workers and how labour law structurally excludes workers along the social dimensions of gender, race and citizenship. 

Resumen

Existe cada vez más investigación sobre la intensificación del trabajo en el período post 1980. El enfoque sobre la flexibilidad en las prácticas de administración ha resultado en más tareas sean delegadas a lxs trabajadorxs, quienes son sobrecargadxs y deben ajustar su uso del tiempo para acomodar su mayor carga laboral. Los estudios de intensificación del trabajo no son nuevos en la producción manufacturera y existe una creciente atención al trabajo doméstico no-pago y los sectores de servicio. Una industria, sin embargo, que fue dejada de lado por estos estudios es el trabajo doméstico, donde lxs empleadxs son individuos o familias. Basándome en las tradiciones de economía política y geografía feministas, sostengo que la especificidad socioespacial del trabajo doméstico pago aporta un énfasis sobre las lesiones en el lugar de trabajo y la exclusión de la ley laboral a los paradigmas de la intensificación del trabajo. Basándome en entrevistas cualitativas llevadas a cabo en Montreal, Quebec desde 2013 hasta 2015, muestro cómo los trabajadores domésticos pagos entrelazan las narrativas acerca de la intensificación del trabajo y las lesiones en el lugar de trabajo, aunque permanecen excluidas de la Ley con respecto a la salud y la seguridad ocupacional y la Ley de Compensación del Trabajador en Quebec. Las mujeres cuidadoras migrantes son impactadas desproporcionadamente por estas exclusiones y muestro cómo la Organización Filipina de Mujeres en Quebec (PINAY) está al frente de los desafíos de estas exclusiones. En conclusión, propongo un abordaje que combina la geografía y la economía política feministas para considerar cómo el achicamiento del tiempo que impacta sobre lxs empleadorxs individuales o de los hogares puede estar intensificando la carga laboral de sus trabajadorxs domésticxs pagxs y cómo la ley laboral excluye estructuralmente a lxs trabajadorxs según las dimensiones sociales de género, raza y ciudadanía.

摘要

有越来越多的研究，探讨有关一九八Ｏ年代以后工作增强的现象。管理实践强调弹性，导致更多的工作卸载至必须调整自身时间运用以容纳更大工作量的工人身上。工作增强的研究，对製造业生产来说并非新鲜事，而对不支薪的家庭劳动与服务部门，也有日渐增加的关注。但这些研究所忽略的一项产业便是支薪家务工作，其中的雇主为个人或家庭。我运用女性主义政治经济学与地理学传统，主张支薪家务工作的社会空间特殊性，强调工作场所伤害与劳动法律的排除，对工作增强的范例做出贡献。我根据2013年至2015年间在魁北克蒙特利尔进行的质性访谈，显示支薪家务工如何与工作增强和工作场所伤害的叙事相互交缠，但仍然受到魁北克有关职业健康与安全的法律和雇员补偿法排除在外。女性照护移工不成比例地受到这些排除所影响，而我将展现魁北克的菲律宾女性组织（PINAY）如何站在挑战这些排除的前沿。我于结论中提出结合女性主义地理学和政治经济学的方法，考量影响个人或家庭雇主的时间挤压，如何可能加重他们聘请的家务工人的工作负担，以及劳动法如何在结构上依性别、种族与公民身份等社会面向排除工人。

Keywords:

• Intensification of work
• workplace injury
• social reproduction
• paid domestic work
• migration
• labour law

Palabras clave:

• intensificación del trabajo
• lesión en lugar de trabajo
• reproducción social
• trabajo doméstico pago
• migración
• ley laboral

关键词:

• 工作增强
• 工作场所伤害
• 社会再生产
• 支薪家务工作
• 移民
• 劳动法

Acknowledgements

The author thanks first and foremost the research participants for sharing their experiences; without them this article would not be possible. Thanks also belongs to Morgan Teeple Hopkins, Cory Jansson, Marieme Lo, Rachel Silvey, Kanishka Goonewardena and Linda McDowell for reading earlier drafts. A heartfelt thanks goes to two anonymous reviewers who provided generous comments that significantly strengthened the article. A previous version was presented at the annual meeting of the American Association of Geographers in Chicago, IL (2015).

Notes

1. FPE takes a gendered lens to the study of social, economic, political and ideological institutions. It is a materialist approach that examines women’s access to social and economic resources (Bryant 2009). FPE significantly contributes to how the labour of women – both paid and unpaid – underpins capitalism. For reviews of the literature, see Luxton and Bezanson (2006); Luxton and Braedley (2010); Luxton (2006); Vosko (2010); Cossman and Fudge (2002).

2. While both feminist political economists (e.g. Arat-Koç 2001) and geographers (e.g. McDowell 2009; Stiell and England 1997) research paid domestic workers who are employed by individuals or households, feminist geographers have contributed a socio-spatial analysis of the home and its distinct traits as a place of work.

3. For instance, several French scholars rely on statistical analysis (Gollac and Volkoff 1996; Gollac 2005; Valeyre 2001).

4. Feminist economists, political economists and activists fought for decades during the twentieth century for unpaid domestic labour to be statistically counted. For excellent analyses of this history, see Waring (1989), Benería (2003) and Luxton (1997).

5. The author thanks an anonymous reviewer for recommending this source.

6. Feminists remain divided on the question of unpaid domestic labour and exchange-value. For reviews of this literature, see Luxton (2006); Himmelweit (1999); Molyneux (1979).

7. In Canada there was a national live-in caregiver program from 1992 to 2015. Immigrant women of colour (particularly from the Philippines) were overrepresented in the program (Silvera 1983; Giles and Arat-Koç 1994; Bakan and Stasiulis 1995; Stasiulis and Bakan 1997; Stiell and England 1997; Arat-Koç 2001; Cossman and Fudge 2002; Pratt 1997, 2004); see also Government of Canada - Citizenship and Immigration Canada (2015).

8. While there are statistics gathered on migrant caregivers in Canada, there are no official statistics available on the employers of these caregivers. A qualitative study on migrant domestic workers in Montréal (Galerand et al. 2015) found that the employers tend to be upper-class professionals from a range of ethnic backgrounds.

9. The CNESST defines domestic worker as a person hired for paid work who performs tasks in the dwelling of an individual in the form of housework, or as a person residing in a dwelling who is taking care of a child or someone who is sick, disabled, or elderly (La Commission des normes, de l’équité, de la santé et de la sécurité du travail 2016). This definition was translated from French by the author.

10. The organizations that later formed the ‘CSST campaign’ included PINAY, the Immigrant Worker’s Centre, the Association des Aides Familiales du Québec (AAFQ), and the Union des Travailleurs et Travailleuses Accidentés de Montréal (UTTAM). As of 2016 the AAFQ is no longer in existence due to lack of funding and changes to Canadian immigration that ended the requirement that caregivers live-in (Association pour la défense des droits du personnel domestique 2016). Also, on January 1, 2016, the CSST merged with La Commission des Normes du Travail (Québec Labour Board) to form the previously mentioned CNESST (La Commission des Normes, de l’équité, de la santé et de la sécurité du travail).