Different shades of precarity: the case of domestic workers in the Netherlands. Analysis of stratifying mechanisms and search for solutions

Developments in Dutch society and governmental policy are expected to have a great impact on the expansion of the market for domestic services. The growing labour market participation of women and the rise in the number of single and dual-earner households is likely to result in an increased demand for cleaners, house-keepers and child minders; the growing number of older people is likely to increase the demand for carers, just like the welfare state retrenchment and growing focus on self-reliance in care provision. While domestic work is regulated under Dutch employment law (Regeling Dienstverleging aan huis), and domestic workers do enjoy some partial protection, their status as employees is by no means unambiguous. The divergent forms of employment (formal vs. informal; in an individual household vs. via external services providers; financed privately by employer vs. subsidized by the state) create a specific hierarchy of domestic workers, with different categories of employees (performing the same tasks and doing the same type of job), being differently involved in the labour market and differently protected under social security laws.
Based upon the analysis of policy documents and legal provisions regulating domestic work in the Netherlands and drawing from academic and grey literature, this paper sketches the profile of the various categories of domestic workers in the Netherlands. It also examines the mechanisms generating the divergent inclusion/exclusion of various categories of domestic workers from entitlement to labour and social security rights and explores the legal/policy instruments available to foster decent work and social protection in the sector.