Women in maintenance: Low Salaries and Rights Sins

Freedom* is one of the working women who works as maintenance at one of the departments at the University Clinical Centre of Kosovo (QKUK), as part of a private cleaning company contracted to maintain KKUK's spaces. She cares for the purity of the same department for sixteen years.

As a mother of two, she says she has been forced to engage in additional tasks to provide basic needs for their growth and schooling. And lack, as she says, of higher education and low employment opportunities has moved her to look for employment as a maintenance worker somewhere.

Freedom* points out that in general women in this sector, especially in hospital centres, work in very serious conditions.

There are many bad conditions, terror, not enough passing material, not paying properly. Since the night we were, without charge, we kept the shift, no fee, no parties, no weekends, no pussy. We work from 7 to 7 in the evening. 12 hours of work without being paid a cent more is too much. It pays 280 euros at the end of the month, and that”, she expresses indignation.

“Symbolic salary”, as she calls it the 280-euro salary, according to her is contempt for women in this sector, as she says, now in Kosovo with this money, she cannot satisfy even half the monthly needs that every family has.

Freedom* shows that since the start of her work, she has always been working by contract and has always been paid to the Trust, but for sixteen years of her work experience in this sector, only once her salaries have increased, from 220 to 280 euros. And from that increase dating back to 2008-2009, she says that they have neither asked for more pay increases nor dared to complain as a collective elsewhere because they have always been threatened with layoffs.

I've never asked for a raise in my salary, nor am I ark, that I'm not even taking into account, only endangers our job. From the satiators who get put out of work, all the workers here work so they don't shit off za”, she continues, demanding that the issue of low wages and non-growing up for more than a decade.

Even the 280-euro salary, Freedom* says he cannot take it for himself now, because a few years ago he says he's been forced into a house-building loan, and now he has a total of 260 euros.

I got my credit card 260. All I get is 20 euros, I don't even get paid. ”

It, in addition to low pay, also tells of the other serious conditions that maintenance hosts face at QKUK every day.

We don't get any food either, nor do we have access to food in the hospital kitchen, nor is transportation paid. Plus shit out there on the jobs you had on the street, and who happens to be our”, confesss away freedom.

The social and economic life of most women in Kosovo has a long history.

The unemployment rate among women in Kosovo currently stands at 18.9 per cent, or is expressed in numbers by a total of 25 thousand and 357 female working age (15-64) are unemployed.

According to the latest data of Kosovo's Statistics Agency for the labour market, the degree of women's participation in the country's overall workforce has been only 22.1% in the first quarter of 2022, compared to men representing 55.2% of the labour force engaged.

The rate of female participation in the inactive population over this period has been at a very high rate of 77.9 percent.

However, even this official information on female employment does not present the real market mirror in the country, as the number of women working without contracts in the maintenance and supervision sector is nowhere reflected.

Arbenita* is another woman from Kline, who for nearly 10 years has worked as a maintenance officer through private homes, mainly in the Pristina region.

However, this experience of her work does not work anywhere, since she has always worked without contract. The agreement between her and the householders, says it was always made with verbal communication.

Arbenita* started this job as a student who after the end of his first year of Bachelor studies, when she had also considered it necessary to find a job, to remove the huge burden of her father, who at the same time was teaching five other children, three of whom at the university.

The conditions ran into the family at the time, have forced me to work as a host here in Pristina. The only other thing I could do was balance with speeches. The curve, at least I won for the weekend. Then the dorm was free and the menage, but for our terms with six children at school, it was a challenge for the father, because we only dealt with agriculture and expenses, it was”, she confessed.

Arbenita* shows that at the beginning of her work, there were cases that only 5 euros was paid for a day's work, but that, for her, 5 euros was enough to spend the week in Pristina.

I just get 5 euros (in days), I go from 9 to 2-3 msday here somewhere, all back with my back. But now he's up and running, he's got 15 grand 20 now and he's got 25 to 30 euros a day <x1.

But, Arbenita*, even though she's educated and graduated from the philosophical faculty in the direction of Sociology, she has not yet found a job in her profession. She now works at a travel company, but says low wages in the private sector have forced her not to interrupt her maintenance work yet, at least when there are free days.

As she says, maintenance work is now paid more in Kosovo, at least so as private work around the house, as the day amounts to up to 30-35 euros currently, depending on home space. According to her, now if you're committed to working only three to four times a week, you can earn up to 250-300 euros a month, almost the same as a private sector salary of eight hours a day.

Working Without an Entrance

One of the sectors where many women in Kosovo work without contracts is that of maintenance. Their work doesn't find any state records.

In general, there is very little official data on the number of women working in the maintenance sector in Kosovo, as most of them work without regular contracts and are not registered anywhere as employees.

This causes the same ones to be automatically excluded from their workplace rights, as provided with the Labour Law.

Based on the lack of official statistics on the number of women working without contracts in the maintenance sector, from relevant institutions that lead private sector workers, they estimate that over 40% of maintenance workers work without contracts.

Jusuf Azem of the Private Sector Technical Union Federation in Kosovo says that regarding maintenance workers covering the union, currently about 95 per cent of them work on regular labour contracts, while in terms of all sectors in Kosovo, Azemi estimates that somewhere over 40 per cent of them are still unformed.

This poor “practice”, employers usually save money and cannot follow the law when it comes to (wrong) treating workers.

Even according to a 2021 report by the “Mousine Koklari” Institute, highlighting government support for women's employment that year, about 30% of women from all sectors reportedly worked without labour contracts in Kosovo.

The Kosovo Tax Administration has told the Economic Bulletin that since the beginning of the Work Formation Project, which started in November 2021 and 31st 2023, only 5 thousand and 449 workers from both genders have been formed.

The subx0> Employment Forum began in November 2021. The number of formalised workers via the project through March 31st, 2023, has reached the number 5,449”, the ATK responses reported.

Meanwhile, in demand for the number of formalised women, specifically from the maintenance sector, the same have offered no answers.

Women maintaining government buildings are paid only 170 per month

Unionist Azemi has claimed the Economic Bulletin that they have complaints of different natures from women working as maintenance in public institutions, such as those in government buildings, such as those working in hospital centres.

“We have a variety of complaints, complaints about small wages, complaints about disrespecting the labour law, in which there are also many other complaints, including non-paying, spending hours, night shifts, etc., and”, Azemi says.

In Kosovo, there are many women of this sector who are paid only 170 per month in the minimum wage amount. They mostly maintain the spaces of government buildings. The same contracts are contracted by the Government of Kosovo through public-private tendering, as all assets of the Government are maintained by private cleaning companies.

Azem, who represents these workers, confirmed this.

“Mainly, workers who receive wages under the minimum wage are employees contracted by the Government of Kosovo. All institutions, all Kosovo Government objects are contracted with private companies, which the Government of Kosovo, we are saying is that the worker's salary is 170 euros, while for other expenses, it tells the company to set its own amount. So in all government objects, the maintenance workers receive a salary of just 170 euros”, Azemi points out.

Respecting the Labour Law “in front of the eyes” of the Labour Inspectorate

Disrespecting the Labour Law, lack of contracts, additional hours of unpaid work, night shift, denial of weekly and annual holidays, as well as privation from additions, are some of the biggest problems the Labour Inspectorate has faced during 2022 in Kosovo.

Based on the annual report of the Inspectorate, during 2022, most inspections were made in the private sector, which tends most to violate workers' rights in jobs.

89.46% of inspections in 2022 were thus in this sector, while only 10.26% in public.

The sector where inspections were mostly made was the very one of services, which includes the maintenance profession, with a total of 23.36% of total inspections in different sectors in the country.

According to this report, a total of 150 women during 2022 were busy working without contracts.

Of all the inspections, The IP has given warnings of a total improvement of 2 thousand and 741 inspection cases, until it has pronounced only 319 final fines.

In the questions of the Economic Bulletin to the Labour Inspectorate, about the search of cleaning workers, the number of complaints the same hand over to them, and violations of legal provisions given to them by employers, their response has been general.

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And women interviewed by the Economic Bulletin have stressed that they have never complained, not even at the Labour Inspectorate, about violating their rights in the workplace, because of the lack of knowledge such an institution can protect their rights.

We're gonna have our rights, but it hasn't lasted for half a day, because the company left us, and we're told that you're away from work.

And for cases when they face workers who have no contracts, the Inspectorate has said that whenever such a practice is found, “The IP acts according to legal procedure, specifically for violations of the concrete legal provision pronounces the fine, whose value is determined according to the US No.07/2012”.

According to this Guide, employers who ignore the working Law provisions, including working without contracts, can be fined between 100 and 10 thousand euros.

Cleaning, “Women's work”

Society in our country has often seen women as responsible for household maintenance for years. These expectations and social standards are also extended to working reports, since women generally dominate the role of cleaning and maintenance.

Marigona Drevinja from the “Moussine Koklari” Institute tells the Economic Bulletin that the reasons for women's overrepresentation in Kosovo's cleaning and maintenance sector are multi-arranged, but are not exempt from global trends.

Drawning has been listed as possible reasons for first social norms in Kosovo, then lack of access to education and work for women, low wages, flexible work, not seeking specific qualifications for this kind of work, and stigmatisation.

According to her, women in Kosovo are facing limited access to other labor force sectors because of such factors as discrimination, education, or limited training, and limited job availability. Hence, cleaning and maintenance work can be viewed as a easier option to reach or as the only option for them. As a result, Drawnine points out that women are more willing to accept their job as maintenance and low pay because they have fewer job options.

Many of them, she says, do not get paid on regular contracts, nor do they enjoy safety at work. In addition to lack of job security, they are not paid even contributions, and therefore end up on a higher rate of retirement poverty.

In addition, according to her, women accept this position of employment because of more flexible working hours, since they also have family responsibilities at the same time.

While, in terms of stigmatisation, Drevija claims that men in Kosovo may even refuse work or such a job, due to social status. This is because men in her opinion are ridiculed if they perform such tasks, and this ridicules them for a variety of consequences.

Kosovo is a patriarchal society, where traditional gender roles dictate specific expectations for men and women. Women are expected to perform household chores, including cleaning and maintenance, cooking, child care, and others. This cultural expectation can extend even to the workplace, where women are viewed as more suitable for certain types of work”, Drevija adds.

According to her, in Kosovo the main problem lies mostly in social norms, as they are maintained by the social patriarchal system and transmitted to new generations, and the same applies to working reports then.

As she quotes a research by the Institute for Social Policy “Moussine Koklari”, generally in Kosovo the young girl learns to cook and clean, that is, with work done inside the house, while the boy is taught to work in the garden, to buy food, repair, etc. Thus, outside - of - house chores or physical strengths are taught to boys. According to this research, the work women do at home is “job”, which is not measured and not included either in discussions on economic production or social dialogue in the country.

According to the research we've done, women spend an average of 6.2 hours a day doing chores and caring for the children and the elderly. Men, however, spend about 3.5 hours a day working the same way, but unlike their kind, they help their children in homework, but many of them do not want to change baby food. Calculating through the Oportune cost formula, should this work be paid, it would reach 33% of Kosovo's BPV”, Drwinja adds away.

Also, the workers in this sector are faced with a lack of job safety, exposure to various chemicals, and/or possible injuries or a general burden of physical labor that lead to further health implications.

But while Kosovo society has a long way to eradicate patriarchal norms, the state intervention remains so that these rates will not normalise even in the daily work women like Arbenita's Freedom* will continue to be vulnerable, without certainty, with low and completely vulnerable salaries from state institutions. /Buletineconomic. com

(This article is produced with the financial support of the European Union under the “Disillusionation and non-involvement project: The violations of workers in different sectors in Kosovo”. Its content is the sole responsibility of the Economic Bulletin and does not necessarily reflect the European Union's views, ATRC or BIRN COSOVA.)