‘Madams‘ forced to sack ‘Eves‘

Brian Hayward WEEKEND POST REPORTER haywardb@avusa.co.za

AT least 15000 household workers, among them domestics and gardeners, have lost their jobs in the Eastern Cape in just three months as financially squeezed employers have been forced to cut back expenses.

This is the only province in the country where jobs in this sector are being lost at such a rate.

In one of the most telling signs that the province has been hardest hit by the economic downturn, figures released in Statistics SA‘s Labour Force Survey last week show that the Eastern Cape shed 12,4 per cent of its private household employees from April to June this year, from 121000 to 106000.

Private household employees are nannies, au pairs, domestic workers, care workers and gardeners.

Domestic placement agencies say the heavy financial burden being carried by residents – which includes spiralling debt and transport costs, high bond repayments, as well as salaries not keeping pace with hefty inflation – is to blame, along with the rising cost of home-based employment as employees‘ travel costs rocket.

Economists have also warned of the dire spinoffs of the retrenchments, with many families and extended families heavily reliant on the single salaries of many household workers.

The only other province to buck the otherwise growing employment of household workers was Limpopo, which shed just 3000 jobs, or 3,7% of its workers in that sector. The Western Cape led the growth with a jump of more than 15%, followed by the Northern Cape with almost 10%.

Analysts say cutbacks in the professional sector have meant many families must now survive on a single income and simply can‘t afford to employ someone to clean up around the house or tend to their children for as many days a week as before the economic downturn. Last month, the motor industry, a major employer in the province, implemented short-time as motor sales plummeted, while more than 500 full-time jobs could be axed.

“The figures don‘t surprise me,” said Nelson Mandela Bay economist Dr Neal Bruton. “Households are still under enormous pressure at the moment. It‘s the worst (household economic) stress in a very long time, with record levels of debt, high interest rates and negative growth in real household disposable income (after removing inflation). Inflation has eroded the spending power of households.”

Bruton said the six-month lag in the interest rate being felt by consumers meant households were only now feeling the pinch of the 15,5% interest rate. He warned that the end of the year could be even worse, before the tough times eased in the second half of 2009.

Others have also pointed to labour laws which have become increasingly onerous for employers over the past two years, making it more of a hassle to hire home-based workers than to pay outside companies to do the job. Instead, more people are either choosing to cut back on the number of days they employ their domestic workers, nannies and gardeners, or axe them altogether and instead hire specialist outside help.

“Because households are dealing with spiralling costs, from fuel to food, people are rearranging themselves so as not to need domestic help any more,” said Eastern Cape financial adviser Paul Leonard. “In my experience it‘s the hassle of finding help (to hire), lots of red tape after hiring, as well as many younger employees not having the necessary skills, like cooking.”

Framesby married mother of two Sherry Jeacocks said she had cancelled the services of the family‘s domestic worker “purely as an affordability issue”.

“I was retrenched,” she said. “My husband is working and we have two children. I would prefer not to have a domestic worker in future, because we hired our domestic worker to look after my younger son, not so much to clean the house.”

Domestic placement businesses say another reason for the cutbacks is that families are becoming increasingly picky with who they hire, with a strong demand for – and shortage of – domestic workers who can cook proficiently, drive and even do the grocery shopping as residents work longer hours to make ends meet.

Placement agencies, which train and then place household help, have seen numbers of willing workers surge in recent months as families cut costs, or opt for specialist companies.

“The cutbacks are very much the trend at the moment,” said Best Placements owner Jenny Langereis. The first people to go were domestic workers and gardeners. “I‘ve also found people having to cut back down on care giving, which is a worry because such people need care around the clock.”

Langereis said she had seen her worker base surge 30% in recent weeks, as residents unable to keep on their household help referred them to her.

According to Chevonne Bishop, owner of placement agency Educare, many were increasingly paying less for their domestic help, with most only willing to pay about R1200 a month, as opposed to almost R2000 a month last year.

“We find that people are willing to pay less, or reduce the days they employ,” said Bishop.

Bay home cleaning services company Fairies has experienced a surge in demand for once-a-week house calls over the past three months, said owner Carol van Rooyen.

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