There is nothing more comforting for workers than to know that the needs of their children and elderly ones are properly addressed. In Europe and other parts of the globe, care, especially for young children and the elderly, is one of the fastest-growing sectors. However, growing populations, ageing societies and shortcomings in social policies are demanding urgent action on the organisation of care work. There are fears that if not adequately addressed, current deficits in care service provision might create an unsustainable global care crisis and increase gender inequalities at work. GLORIA NWAFOR writes.

Care work, both paid and unpaid, is crucial to the future of decent work. Care is estimated to employ some eight million people, representing about five per cent of the overall workforce globally.

Currently, around 380 million people work in the care sector and projections are that this will increase significantly in the future as demand for such services grows.

Already, there is a shortage of care workers and factors such as poor wages and work conditions are a continuing challenge. This opens the way for a potential care crisis. By 2030, it is estimated that 2.3 billion people will need care.

This is just as the unpaid care work done by women globally every day is equivalent to over 1.5 billion people working full-time.Experts believe that governments must drive a massive increase in quality care sector jobs and better frontline services.

The commemoration of October 29 as International Day of Care and Support by the United Nations (UN) is part of efforts to raise awareness of the crucial role of care work in society.

A new International Labour Organisation (ILO) study suggested that greater investment in care services – notably childcare – could yield an impressive three-to-one return on investment in terms of growth in Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

It could also reduce the global gender pay gap and increase the proportion of women in paid employment. So, what needs to be done to get more decent jobs and working conditions into the care sector?

Care, according to Public Services International (PSI), a global union federation uniting the struggles of vital care workers across the public, private and not-for-profit sectors, is an essential service that is too important to leave in the hands of those whose primary motivation is the extraction of profit.

According to the global body, quality of care relies on well-paid, trained and supported workers, which the profit motive inevitably undermines. Be that as it may that the care economy is growing as the demand for childcare and care for the elderly is increasing in all regions, it will thus create a great number of jobs in the coming years.

In Nigeria, the government was urged to provide social security cover for caregivers. Immediate past president of the Human Capital Providers Association of Nigeria (HuCaPAN), Aderemi Adegboyega, said Nigeria was yet to have a structure that focuses on caregivers, following the kind of work they do in taking care of the physically challenged, children and elderly.

He said: “In Nigeria, we still have members of family fulfilling the care for the physically challenged, children and elderly. Our communal life has been the saving grace and several people have been deprived of their livelihood and ability to contribute to the economy at the optimal level because they have to take care of their aged parents or because they have to take care of their physically challenged children.

“In places where caregivers are engaged, they are usually covered under social security protection, such that the people being taken care of are paid by the government. But we don’t have that structure in place yet. It is the structure the Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF) was supposed to provide for people, who either had accidents at work or had post-employment situations that made them dependent on other people like retirees. Such people should be covered under social security or post-employment scheme of NSITF but Nigeria does not have these in place.”

Talking about the care sector and why it is crucial to a future with decent work, the ILO, said with an estimated figure of about 380 million people working in the sectors, that women make up about two-thirds of the workers.

These numbers are expected to grow, in particular, in childcare and care for the elderly. Thus, the ILO warned that there is great potential for the creation of jobs that not only is there a current shortage of care workers, but factors such as low wages, poor working conditions and a lack of protections and benefits mean that the sector isn’t attracting new workers. This potentially sets nations up for a global care crisis.

The Director-General of the ILO, Gilbert Houngbo, at the commemoration of the International Day of Care and Support, called for heavy investments in the care economy and policies that guarantee maternity protection, parental leave, early childhood education and care as well as long-term care services.

He said such policies would support families, create as many as 300 million jobs, and help achieve gender equality.

“Without care workers, there would be few services for preschool children, older people, or those with disabilities.

“Without care workers, millions of people could not go to work. This means parents are not able to support their families, and businesses are losing valuable talent.

“This is a day to celebrate carers, but it is also a day to push for change in the way we care,” he said. ILO said with the figures, which showed that women are performing more than three-quarters of the time spent in unpaid care work, there is a need for sweeping changes in policies to address the rising need for care, and to tackle the huge disparity between women’s and men’s care responsibilities.

Lead Author of the Care Work and Care Job for Decent Work report, ILO, Laura Addati, said the global prominence of nuclear families and single-headed households, and the growth of women’s employment in certain countries increase the demand for care workers.

She noted that if not addressed properly, current deficits in care work and its quality will create a severe and unsustainable global care crisis, and further increase gender inequalities in the world of work.

People working on the frontline of care carry out a vital role, essential for the well-being of children and relatives, and to enable parents and adults with elderly relatives to work and earn a living.

Yet care work, carried out in most cases by women, is underpaid and under-valued, and consequently suffers from staff shortages.
Addati explained: “Data from 64 countries representing two-thirds of the world’s working age population show that 16.4 billion hours per day are spent in unpaid care work – the equivalent to two billion people working eight hours per day with no remuneration.

“Were such services to be valued based on an hourly minimum wage, they would amount to nine per cent of global GDP or $11 trillion.” Research shows clearly how investing in the care sector can boost the employment of women and men, increases Gross Domestic Product (GDP), and is essential to overcoming entrenched discrimination against women in the workplace and society.

The study also reveals that work in the care sector remains significantly undervalued and characterised by poor pay and working conditions. Women do more than three-quarters of unpaid care work. This is equivalent to 13 per cent of global GDP, or $10 trillion per year.

In six emerging economies, an investment of two per cent of GDP in care would create over 42 million jobs. Care jobs are often low-paid, physically and emotionally demanding with high workloads carried out with insecure conditions, inadequate training, and poor career prospects, and in some extreme cases in conditions of near slavery.

While care workers are often badly paid, care is expensive for those, who have to pay for it out of their pocket. The International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), also has called on governments to increase investment in care to generate economic growth, tackle growing demographic challenges and help overcome gender discrimination by supporting women’s participation in the economy.

General Secretary, ITUC, Sharan Burrow, said greater investment in care is vital and urgent for every country, whether to ensure dignity and health for ageing populations or the best start in life for children in countries where the young dominate population statistics.

According to Burrow, low investment in care, with the expectation that women must bear the cost of care unpaid, is a huge barrier to increasing women’s workforce participation, tackling the gender pay gap and achieving equality between women and men in the workplace, and society.

She said the investment is needed to guarantee decent jobs for care workers, with full respect for their rights at work even as they need the protection that organising in unions provides.

Burrow added that it would help improve pay and working conditions in the sector and provide vital economic stimulus at a time when the global economy is sluggish and working families are feeling the pinch.