Migration likely to fill demand

With more than 25 per cent of NZ’s population expected to be 85 or older by 2051, paid domestic work will increase despite the economic downturn, according to Victoria University researchers.

In a study released by the Institute of Policy Studies, researchers expect many people will choose to spend their elderly years at home, which will drive demand for additional help at home that family members may not be able to provide.

The study found that domestic work was once an important source of paid employment for women from the 1880s to the 1930s, with shortages of workers met mainly by migration from the British Isles.

While such work almost disappeared post World War II, it is likely there will again be demand for paid domestic workers in the long-term.

“Our increasingly highly-skilled and educated workforce combined with the ageing of the current home care workforce means there will be fewer NZers available to undertake full-time paid domestic work,” says researcher Jessie Williams, one of the authors of the report.

“We expect NZ will look to Asian and Pacific workers to fill this void.

“The study also found little is known presently about NZ’s domestic employees, chiefly because the workplace is the private home, and this will need to be addressed as the workforce grows.

“Although domestic workers are technically covered under present employment law, private homes are not covered in the same way as normal workplaces and this restricts the access of labour inspectors and unions.

“The home owner or occupier also has fewer obligations than general employers in complying with health and safety legislation and can discriminate in employing domestic workers on a number of grounds.”

Ms Williams says this makes both workers and clients vulnerable as they operate outside of usual checks and balances, which are particularly important in elder care situations.

Paid domestic work: a private matter or public policy issue? was authored by Dr Paul Callister and Jessie Williams of Victoria University and Lisa Tortell of the Research Centre on Socio-Economic Change in Lisbon, Portugal.