They are active in Italy 1,6 million domestic workers, Of which 850 thousand regulars e 750 thousand in black. This is Istat's snapshot of a sector that essentially includes three professional figures: cleaners, carers and babysitters.
However, the data from the Institute of Statistics are not accepted by all. According to the calculations of the Association of Domestic Work Families, in fact, the sector includes everything two million people, of whom 1,2 million are irregular. The female component is overwhelming (88,3%), while the average age is 48 years. As for origin, in 73,1% of cases these jobs are carried out by foreign citizens, even if the share of Italians has been growing in recent years.
In economic terms, domestic work is worth around 20 billion euros a year, but the International Labor Organization believes that this value, with appropriate development policies, could double by 2030.
The trend is linked to the aging of the population, which will bring the over-75s to 23% of the total in 2050 (from 11% in 2016).
With the aim of regularizing the domestic labor market, Orienta Family was born, the division of Orienta dedicated to this specific labor market. The initiative envisages the application of the national category contract which governs the domestic sector.
"The challenge launched by Orienta Family is to promote the regularization of domestic work in Italy by focusing on value-added services - explains Monica Archibugi, Orienta Family manager - One of the levers that pushes many families to regularize domestic work relationships with us is the information activities that we offer showing the great advantages of the domestic National Collective Labor Agreement. The cost-effectiveness of contributions, the flexibility of permanent contracts, job insurance for the worker, unemployment for the worker after dismissal and much more. We started this project thanks to the focus on baby-sitting with the lecicogne.net portal and now we have expanded Orienta's services such as search and selection, contractualisation, accounting administration, payment management, to Italian, but soon to be European, families. The data comfort us – Archibugi comments – in this sense and confirm that offering ample assistance to families in the management of the domestic work relationship is a strong incentive for regularisation. In one year we have recorded a 30% growth in regular employment relationships through our platform and thanks to this type of services. Not only that, but also the lever of corporate welfare can be a valid incentive tool for the emergence of undeclared work in this area”.
