2014-2016 impact: Social economy illustration: Cooperative of domestic workers

The National Domestic Workers Federation (NDWF) in India started up an innovative project to organize domestic workers into cooperatives with the assistance of ILO. Though currently piloted only in Jharkand, one of the Indian states, 132 domestic workers bought into a newly created cooperative by buying 300 shares at 1,5€ a piece. Once joined, this cooperative trained the members, all women domestic workers and jointly, they drafted a standard two page contract which specifies their working conditions. This is a procedure almost unheard of, as hardly any domestic workers have specific or explicit contracts, let alone written ones. They approached their employers and 51 of them agreed to sign, which meant the domestic workers had guaranteed advantages, like one paid leave day per week, maternity leave, fixed salary etc. The employer also agrees that an additional 5% to the salary is contributed for social security, which the cooperative organizes for all members, enrolling them in welfare boards, paying health insurances, contributing to pension schemes etc. Next to that, the cooperative can also make loans to its members or start producing food items to sell, of which the proceeds would go to the cooperative and be shared among the members as shareholders.