A revised draft of The Karnataka Domestic Workers’ (Social Security and Welfare) Bill was discussed in the Cabinet on Thursday. The revised draft Bill, in a significant departure from the first draft that was published in October last year, excludes individual employers from the responsibility of paying a fee towards the welfare fund of the domestic workers.

What does earlier draft say

According to the earlier draft, a maximum of 5% welfare fee was to be collected from employers, service providers and placement agencies, including platforms, for registration of domestic workers. In the new draft, individual employers are not required to pay this fee. It also makes no mention of the percentage of welfare fee.

While the first draft explicitly classified platforms (such as Urban Company, Snabbit) as employers under the category of “service providers”, the revised version makes no such explicit mention.

Multiple omissions

The revised draft doesn’t define “decent work condition” and excludes gig workers from the definition of domestic workers. It also does not define “discrimination”.

The initial draft of the Bill prohibited employing domestic workers without a formal agreement that met the minimum labour standards and required details such as the worker’s name, nature of work, working hours, wages, welfare fee, contributions and other benefits. The revised Bill has removed this clause.

The workers will be eligible for minimum wages as per the Code on Wages 2019 and overtime payment, social security and welfare schemes, but eligibility for reasonable working hours, periods of rest and annual paid leave has been left out from the section that speaks about the rights of domestic workers.

Fixing and revision of minimum wages payable to domestic workers, number of work hours, weekly holiday and compensation for accidents or injury at the workplace are some of the other aspects omitted.

Registration

While the new draft mandates the registration of domestic workers, the penalty for non-registration has been reduced to a maximum fine of ₹5,000 from “imprisonment for up to three months and/or a fine of up to ₹20,000”. Similarly, the penalty for payment of wages below the minimum wage has been reduced from ₹20,000 to ₹10,000.