Decent Work or Decent Income Corona

Crisis Experiences Labor and

Globalization 24 1st Edition Lygia
Sabbag Fares
Visit to download the full and correct content document:
https://ebookmeta.com/product/decent-work-or-decent-income-corona-crisis-experien
ces-labor-and-globalization-24-1st-edition-lygia-sabbag-fares/
More products digital (pdf, epub, mobi) instant
download maybe you interests ...

Decent Work and Economic Growth Walter Leal Filho

https://ebookmeta.com/product/decent-work-and-economic-growth-
walter-leal-filho/

Decent People 1st Edition De'Shawn Charles Winslow

https://ebookmeta.com/product/decent-people-1st-edition-deshawn-
charles-winslow-3/

Decent People 1st Edition De'Shawn Charles Winslow

https://ebookmeta.com/product/decent-people-1st-edition-deshawn-
charles-winslow-2/

Decent People 1st Edition De'Shawn Charles Winslow

https://ebookmeta.com/product/decent-people-1st-edition-deshawn-
charles-winslow/
Shifting Trajectories in Globalization Labor and the
Transformation of Work 1st Edition Jonathan Westover

https://ebookmeta.com/product/shifting-trajectories-in-
globalization-labor-and-the-transformation-of-work-1st-edition-
jonathan-westover/

A Decent Life Morality for the Rest of Us 1st Edition

Todd May

https://ebookmeta.com/product/a-decent-life-morality-for-the-
rest-of-us-1st-edition-todd-may/

The Worldwide Corona Crisis Global Coup d État Against

Humanity Michael Chossudovsky

https://ebookmeta.com/product/the-worldwide-corona-crisis-global-
coup-d-etat-against-humanity-michael-chossudovsky/

Consensus or Conflict China and Globalization in the

21st Century 1st Edition Huiyao Wang

https://ebookmeta.com/product/consensus-or-conflict-china-and-
globalization-in-the-21st-century-1st-edition-huiyao-wang/

Culture Your Culture Innovating Experiences Work 1st

Edition Karen Jaw-Madson

https://ebookmeta.com/product/culture-your-culture-innovating-
experiences-work-1st-edition-karen-jaw-madson/
 Table of Contents

Introduction ........................................................................................................... 7
1. Demanding labour: How essential disability support workers are
marginalised in Australian industrial relations ............................................. 17
Karen Douglas
2. Gendered impacts of COVID-19 in Brazil: a preliminary assessment......... 39
Lygia Sabbag Fares, Ana Luíza Matos de Oliveira, Luísa Cardoso, Raquel Guimarães
Luiza Nassif-Pires
3. The repercussions of dismantling Brazil's social protection system in the
fight against Covid-19 .................................................................................. 57
Paulo Malerba, Maíra Mansur, Michele Souza e Souza
4. Public policy choice of local governance under the Covid-19 crisis
in China: Is the e-voucher scheme prone to poor relief? .............................. 85
Cheng Li
5. Covid-19 Pandemic, Gender and Informal Work: Voices from Street
Vendors in Accra, Ghana ............................................................................ 117
John Oti Amoah
6. Labour, Gender and Work in the Regions of India During the
Covid-19 Period .......................................................................................... 131
Wendy Olsen, Manasi Bera, Clelia Cascella, Amaresh Dubey, Jihye Kim , Zoe Williams,
Purva Yadav
7. Working and surviving under Covid-19 conditions: Scenarios from
agricultural sector in India .......................................................................... 163
Prem Jose Vazhacharickal, Veerabhadrappa Bellundagi , K. R. Hamsa
8. The Universal Basic Income Phenomenon, the Kenyan Case; Myth or
Possibility? .................................................................................................. 187
Maureen Chadi Kalume
9. Poverty and vulnerability of agricultural work in southern Yucatan
through Covid-19 ........................................................................................ 203
Francisco Iván Hernández Cuevas, Javier Becerril García
10. The Covid-19 pandemic as an agency for a neoliberal shock doctrine
in the South Africa ...................................................................................... 225
Methembe Mdlalose, Ernest Khalema, Edmore Ntini
11. Covid-19 and the Role of the State in Africa ............................................. 243
Isaac Khambule
12. Gendered Dimensions of the Corona Pandemic ......................................... 261
Aishah Namukasa, Hariati Sinaga, Verna Dinah Q. Viajar
Introduction1
First cases of Covid-19 were reported in December 2019, in Wuhan City, China
and the World Health Organization (WHO) was informed about the disease on
31 December 2019. After a month, the WHO declared the Covid-19 outbreak as
a global health emergency and on 11 March 2020, it was declared as a global
pandemic. After 14 months, on 6 May 2021, the WHO reported that globally there
have been 155,665,214 confirmed cases of Covid-19, 3,250,648 deaths (WHO
2021). Countries were affected differently and their responses to the health crises
also varied, depending on the political position and even the gender of national
leaders. A study analysing 194 countries concludes that countries which are led
by women present significantly better results in controlling the pandemic. Proac-
tive and coordinated policy responses are given as an explanation (Garikipati and
Kambhampati 2021).
Covid-19 outcomes are a result of many variables. Despite different political per-
spectives, countries have unequal structural conditions to cope with health and
economic crises. While some regions immediately implemented public policies
to reduce the economic and health impacts of the new disease—ranging from the
adoption of social distance measurements to the release of aid aimed at mainte-
nance of small and medium-sized businesses and income guarantee policies for
the most vulnerable—others delayed adopting such measures, which invariably
resulted in the worsening of the crisis. A recent study published (Silva 2020) de-
veloped a methodology to compare the measures undertaken by different coun-
tries measures and to identify the top 20 who have been able to combat Covid-
19. The paper pointed out that among the 108 best-evaluated nations the six best
in the fight against Covid-19 were Asian countries, probably because they were
the first to face the pandemic. Following them, six European and two from Oce-
ania were listed. According to the author, the weak performance in the Americas
has been due to politics and the failure of the governments of Donald Trump, in
the USA and Jair Bolsonaro, in Brazil to manage the crises. In addition to the lack
of political action guidance and coordination, widespread fake news and mislead-
ing information played an important role in bringing these two countries to be the
worse in terms of cases and deaths inflicted by Covid-19.

1
The editors would like to offer a special thanks to the International Center for Development
and Decent Work (ICDD), Christoph Scherrer, Christian Möllmann, Ismail Doga Karatepe;
to the Centro de Estudos Sindicais e Economia do Trabalho – CESIT – Universidade Es-
tadual de Campinas – UNICAMP (Center for Trade Union Studies and Labor Economics –
University of Campinas) ICDD’s Brazilian Partner Institution where both editors graduated
from; to all contributors of this edited volume named in this introduction; to Luisa Cardoso
for the revision of this introductory essay; and to Madhuparna Banerjee for copy-editing this
book.
Vaccination is considered to be the way back to normalcy and economic recovery.
If we look at the United States, despite the disastrous management of the health
crises and the very high number of cases and deaths, the country now is being
able to inoculate its citizens in an impressive pace, especially for a country which
does not have a universal health system that imposes some extra challenges for
vaccine distribution. Within a few months after starting the vaccination cam-
paign, the country is supposedly to have inoculated all willing adults by the end
of May 2021 (BBC News 2021). On the economic side, the USA recently ap-
proved a 1.9 trillion-dollar bill as a recovery plan which should boost the econ-
omy and support workers and business to get back on the growth track. On the
other hand, if we examine Brazil, which presents the second highest cases and
deaths in the word, we see that the health situation is completely out of control,
with shortage in UIC, medicine, medical staff, the vaccination process being very
slow, and the overall growth falling behind the schedule. According to Fiocruz,
at the pace of early 2021, the country would complete the inoculation in 2024
(Resende 2021).
Back in 2020, many pharmaceutical companies in different regions of the world
started the development and production of vaccines. The first vaccine issued in
an Emergency Use Listing by WHO was the Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine on 31 De-
cember 2020, which allowed the start of the mass vaccination programme. As of
18 February 2021, at least seven different vaccines across three platforms have
been rolled out in countries. At the same time, more than 200 additional vaccine
candidates are being developed, of which more than 60 are in clinical trials. Data
from the “Our World in Data” website estimate that on 14 April 2021 around 6
per cent of the world’s population received at least one dose of the Covid-19 vac-
cine. However, according to the same source, most of them are concentrated in
North America and Europe, wealthy countries had secured more than 87 per cent
of the more than 700 million doses of vaccines, while poor countries had received
only 0.2 per cent, according to the World Health Organization (2021).
In addition to the devastating consequences in health, the pandemic created an
economic and labour crisis, challenging the world’s production and consumption
systems. A variety of measures, necessary to minimize the health crises—from
the closure of non-essential businesses 2 or limitations in their time operations,
social distancing to lockdowns and travel bans—affected countries’ economies
and people’s lives, work, and income. The accumulation of capital is being af-
fected; economic growth has slowed down worldwide. Production was disrupted;
several businesses went bankrupt; there was unemployment, recession, and infla-
tion of basic products in some countries.

2
The definition of non-essential business is a national political decision and there is no
common agreement on the issue.
The pandemic arrived at a time when neoliberal ideas were still considered to be
the most important ideological framework to define macroeconomic policies
around the world. With their initial take-off in the 1970s via the elaboration of
severe critiques of the welfare state model of political economy and the expansion
of public spending, which allegedly caused fiscal deficits, neoliberal policies res-
urrected liberal ideas to defend the primacy of private actors. In the case of pe-
ripheral countries, those policies were adopted from the mid-1980s, adhering to
the Washington Consensus; in theory they were supposed to help these countries
to cope with excessive public deficits related to state-oriented industrialization
processes that had been prominent up until this time.
Regarding labour relations, the main neoliberal goal has been to dismantle labour
protection as it is considered as a productive cost only. This policy defends the
deregulation and flexibilization of labour law, reduces rights throughout the last
decades, and expands the scope of capital to intensify labour exploitation. The
mainstream discourse states that labour deregulation would lead to the moderni-
zation of labour rights, which would provide a better adaptation to the current
international conditions of capitalist production, while offering more dignified
work and decent working conditions. The results, however, were completely the
opposite. The intensification of unstable work relationships was evident, well-
illustrated in the extension and escalation of working hours, flexible work sched-
ules, uncertain contracts and remuneration schemes, precarisation of labour rights
and increase in labour informality.
According to the International Labour Organisation (ILO), in 2020, 8.8 per cent
global working hours were lost relative to the fourth quarter of 2019, equivalent
to 255 million full-time jobs. The same report highlights that hour losses were
particularly high in Latin America and the Caribbean, Southern Europe and
Southern Asia. In relation to 2019, in 2020, 114 million jobs were lost, and those
losses were the highest in the Americas, and lowest in Europe and Central Asia.
Labour income declined by 8.3 per cent (ILO 2021).
Also, the labour force was not affected evenly. Employment losses were 5 per
cent higher for women than men and 8.7 per cent higher for the young in com-
parison to older workers. In case of women, this reflects the gendered labour mar-
ket segregation, as they are present at service sectors jobs that were more affected
during the pandemic like education, beauty, sales (Fares, Oliveira and Rolim
2021). Also, women are overrepresented in precarious occupations like domestic
workers who either were dismissed without compensation or were treated as es-
sential work and had the “opportunity” to continue working under insecure
(health) conditions.
In addition to the unprecedented trail of unemployment and income reduction,
the pandemic results in an increase in inequality and in poverty levels. Report
released by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development
(UNCTAD), points out that in 2020, the least developed countries in the world
had their worst economic performance in 30 years due to the pandemic. The same
report predicts that falling income levels, widespread unemployment and growing
fiscal deficits caused by the pandemic could lead up to 32 million people to ex-
treme poverty in the 47 countries considered least developed by the UN. The same
should happen with the global levels of poverty and food insecurity. The propor-
tion of those living below the poverty line (US $ 1.90) per day is expected to
reach an additional 32 million people. Another report from the Economic Com-
mission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC, 2021) points out that the
year 2020 ended with an additional 22 million poor people in the region. In addi-
tion, Latin America has worsened inequality rates, employment rates and partic-
ipation in work, especially for women. Considering 209 million people living in
poverty at the end of 2020, 78 million dwell in extreme poverty, representing 8
million more than in 2019. According to projections, the region will record a 7.7
per cent drop in Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Both the health and economic
impacts hit harder the black, Latinos (in the case of the USA) and migrants. In
Brazil, black women have been the most impacted demographic group during the
pandemic, presenting alarmingly high poverty rates (Nassif, Cardoso and
Oliveira, 2021).
In this scenario, many questions are unanswered. How was labour hit by the pan-
demic in different contexts? What strategies were applied to cope with the labour
and economic challenges faced by different countries? What were their results?
How can we compare countries’ different experiences and learn from them? What
explains the countries’ different performances? What are the similarities and dif-
ferences of the impact of Covid-19 in the regions of the world for workers of
various industries, considering the gender and racial aspects? Aiming to answer
these and many other questions, this book brings valuable contributions of aca-
demics, researchers, and labour movement activists from all regions of the globe.
The articles include ten studies on single countries like Australia, Brazil, China,
Ghana, India, Kenya, Mexico, and South Africa and two cross-country analyses:
one from African countries and another from Indonesia, the Philippines and
Uganda, thereby debate and respond to some of these questions and look at the
consequences in the ground.
Organization of the book
Chapter One: “Demanding Labour: How Essential Disability Support Workers
are Marginalised in Australian Industrial Relations” by Karen Douglas discusses
how disability support workers are an underpaid, undervalued and underrepre-
sented group of workers in the Australian and global labour market. Insecure
work and employment relations have been amplified under Covid-19. However,
the conditions of the pandemic have also enabled a wider discussion regarding
deficient work arrangements. Combining existing scholarship on gendered em-
ployment relations and emerging research on the vulnerabilities of disability
workers and the people they support, this chapter highlights barriers to valuing
this work and surveys possible ways in which these barriers can be overcome.
This contribution underscores the importance of challenging genderless policies
and economic regimes that continue to de-value the necessary support these
workers provide to marginalised citizens.
Chapter Two “Gendered Impacts of Covid-19 in Brazil: a Preliminary Assess-
ment” by Lygia Sabbag Fares, Ana Luíza Matos de Oliveira, Luísa Cardoso,
Raquel Guimarães and Luiza Nassif-Pires introduces how the Covid-19 pandemic
reached Brazil in a challenging economic and socio-political context and its con-
sequences from a feminist perspective. The authors highlight the recent poor eco-
nomic performance of the country under an austerity agenda since 2015 and how
it is aggravated by the current president who deliberately neglects social inequal-
ities, especially in gender. Women and girls3 are likely to be more affected by the
pandemic and so far, have been only marginally considered in the policy agenda.
The chapter addresses this issue by pointing out how the prevailing socioeco-
nomic vulnerability of Brazilian women and girls has been augmented by the
Covid-19 pandemic. It also explores current federal policy responses to the pan-
demic within the gender mainstreaming conceptual framework. Preliminary con-
clusions highlight the need for a comprehensive set of policies that can improve
women’s and girl’s conditions, ensuring their well-being and safety.
Chapter Three “The repercussions of dismantling Brazil’s social protection sys-
tem in the fight against Covid-19”, by Paulo Malerba, Maíra Mansur, and Michele
Souza seeks to understand the effects of austerity measures, especially the Con-
stitutional Amendment 95 and the 2017 Workers’ Rights Reform on vulnerable
populations, in the context of the Covid-19 health crisis. It investigates the hy-
pothesis that these measures have stripped workers of the protections that the le-
gal apparatus of the Constitution in 1988 had provided, restricting their ability to
deal with the pandemic. To do so, the authors refer to both international and na-
tional literature on welfare programmes, as well as documents and research on
the impact of neoliberal policies on social security in Brazil. They observe that
existing vulnerabilities have been deepened by the austerity measures associated
with the overall pre-pandemic neoliberal ideology. Covid-19 crises, the govern-
ment scientific negationism, and lack of institutional coordination added one
more layer of vulnerability to these already susceptible sections of society, ex-
posing them further to the disease and its socioeconomic consequences.
Chapter Four “Public policy choice of local governance under the Covid-19 crisis
in China: Is the e-voucher scheme prone to poor relief?” by Cheng Li analyses

3
Girls took responsibility for household chores and care activities and drop off from school
more frequently than boys. Therefore, the negative effect of the pandemic will be felt by
several generations of women.
the state’s strategy of offering digital consumption vouchers instead of cash trans-
fer in China. It debates the ‘Keynesian multiplier effect’ and Thaler’s mental ac-
counting and the potential such kinds of public policy have in boosting consump-
tion while providing relief to the public during the crisis. This chapter goes be-
yond a conventional policy process analysis, and through rational discourses and
internal politics tend to reveal why local governance chose the e-voucher scheme
during the Covid-19 crisis. It also looks downward at the local governance’s op-
erational level and its interaction with private interest groups under the intrinsic
power relation analysis to understand the general mechanism of public policy-
making/selection in China. The chapter argues that the implementation of the e-
voucher scheme indeed contributes to some private consumption (in the short run)
but plays an insignificant role in bringing about relief for the poor. Though ra-
tional discourses have made local governments’ policy choice more acceptable
by the public, they cannot hide the biased policy preferences towards the busi-
ness, which is more determined by internal politics at local governance.
Chapter Five “Covid-19 Pandemic, Gender and Informal Work: Voices from
Street Vendors in Accra, Ghana” by John Oti Amoah draws on the experiences
of street vendors in Ghana and discusses the effects of Covid-19 on men and
women. It highlights their coping strategies and provides policy recommendation
to deepen the understanding of invisible informal economy workers in the Global
South. These gender dynamics are analysed using in-depth interviews conducted
with street vendors in Greater Accra, Ghana. The voices from the street vendors
suggest that the effects of decreasing demand and income are not the same for
women and men because of the gendered nature of their trading goods. The evi-
dence also indicates that coping strategies, engagement with religious faith activ-
ities and introduction of new items in the street goods’ list is influenced by gen-
der. The crisis is worsening the socioeconomic vulnerability of street vendors,
particularly women and their families. This study offers a new perspective on the
forms of actions taken by street vendors in adapting to different types of shocks
as well as their implications on gender empowerment.
Chapter Six, “Labour, Gender and Work in the Regions of India During the
Covid-19 Period” by Wendy Olsen, Manasi Bera, Clelia Cascella, Amaresh
Dubey, Jihye Kim, Zoe Williams and Purva Yadav explores the policy response
to the Covid-19 pandemic in relation to reverse migration and its effect in India’s
large informal labour market under a gender perspective. This chapter aims to
explore these effects by analysing the existing disadvantages and migration flow
across regions, and critically examining the policy responses. The hypothesis is
that loss of jobs and reverse migration wave may increase poverty and the eco-
nomic burden on women in the household. In analysing the situation, the chapter
applies gender-and-development theory (GAD) combined with human capabili-
ties theory. The analysis, based on nationally representative secondary data
sources, reveals the high vulnerability of workers due to the large informal sector
and policy biases and disadvantages of women workers, who are also under-
counted. Female disadvantage is higher in the North-Central region states with
greater risk of infection from returning male migrants. It concludes that the em-
ployment and social security policies need to be more progressive, and gender
should be fundamental in the poverty-focused interventions in India.
Chapter Seven “Working and surviving under Covid-19 conditions: Scenarios
from agricultural sector in India” by Prem Jose Vazhacharickal1,
Veerabhadrappa Bellundagi and Hamsa K.R. explores the impact of the Covid-
19 pandemic in rural India and the government’s responses. The Covid-19 lock-
down affected many seasonal crops influencing its supply and demand. It debates
how the government should support farmers and workers and ensure their safety.
The chapter affirms that Covid-19 pandemic demanded a new set of reforms to
strengthen the Indian economy, especially the Aatmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan,
which aimed at making India a self-reliant nation and support the farmers during
the economic crisis created by the Covid-19 pandemic.
Chapter Eight “The Universal Basic Income Phenomenon, the Kenyan Case:
Myth or Possibility?” by Maureen Kalume points out the frailty of the working
class in the advent of economic turmoil, the precarious conditions of the working
poor and the inadequacies of social protection regimes as highlighted by the out-
break of Covid-19. Looking at the unreliability of wages, high unemployment
rates and informalisation of the Kenyan labour markets, the chapter defends that
Universal Basic Income (UBI) can be an important tool to secure income. The
study analyses the possibility of UBI in Kenya and investigates its source of
funds, its potentials, and viability.
Chapter Nine “Poverty and Vulnerability of Agricultural Work in Southern Yu-
catan through Covid-19” by Francisco Iván Hernández and Cuevas Javier Becer-
ril García offers a perspective on the case of agriculture in Yucatan, Mexico.
Through a cross-sectional quantitative study with a quasi-experimental design
that estimates the impact of agricultural activity on household income and de-
scribes it in terms of decent work, the results show that there is a positive and
higher impact on the monthly income in the households that make milpa (corn)
close to 18 dollar per month versus those that do not carry out this activity. In this
sense, agricultural activity contributes to reducing food poverty by 14.05 per cent
in the households that practice the activity and, if combined with productive pub-
lic policy programmes, the effect is greater in reducing inequality.
Chapter Ten “The Covid-19 Pandemic as an Agency for the Neoliberal Shock
Doctrine in South Africa” by Methembe Mdlalose, Ernest Khalema and Edmore
Ntini discusses how the South African government acted in containing the Covid-
19 pandemic. The authors lay out health institution-based strategies and a national
eight-month lockdown and its effects. The aim of this chapter is to examine the
role of Covid-19 in enforcing the shock doctrine in South Africa. Using extensive
literature, this study argues that the South African government overlooked the
standard mechanisms of service delivery and democratic processes by flouting
traditional procedures in enforcing neoliberal prescriptions during the pandemic.
First, in South Africa there has been a pursuit of foreign creditors by the state
without exhausting available domestic alternatives. Second, there has been an in-
crease in the commercialisation of social services through government outsourc-
ing during Covid-19. Third, there has been palpable growth in corruption and
irregular expenditure related to Covid-19 funds. This chapter suggests recom-
mendations on how the government can ensure sustainable growth and equitable
distribution of social services in such circumstances.
Chapter Eleven “Covid-19 and the Role of the State in Africa” by Isaac Khambule
examines how some African countries approached the pandemic. It interrogates
the social and economic contribution of state interventionist policies in mitigating
the socioeconomic impact of Covid-19 and the potential outcomes for the neolib-
eral global order after the pandemic. The prospects and challenges of using these
interventionist policies to influence ‘the end of neoliberalism’ are discussed in
line with the adopted social and economic interventions and the sources of fiscal
support. The chapter argues that the sources of the financial support used as social
and economic relief packages will determine the likelihood of ending neoliberal-
ism.
Chapter Twelve “Gendered Dimensions of the Covid-19 Pandemic” by Aishah
Namukasa, Hariati Sinaga and Verna Dinah Q. Viajar examines the gendered di-
mensions of the pandemic in the studies of three selected countries—Indonesia,
the Philippines and Uganda. Women are at the forefront (nurses and care work)
in the fight against coronavirus. However, their involvement in the state’s imple-
mentation of prevention measures is questionable. These countries have experi-
enced securitised responses to the pandemic. The chapter questions how women
are affected by both the virus and harsh policy responses against the pandemic.
Drawing on insights from social reproduction theory (SRT) and feminist ‘se-
cureconomy’, it discusses the lived experiences of women working in the
healthcare sector. Methodologically, the study relies on secondary data including
relevant academic literature and official government reports.
Presenting very interesting case studies, this book invites the reader to discover
the macro and micro strategies in facing the Covid-19 crises and the conse-
quences for workers, in terms of race and class, for countries and internationally.
References
BBC News. 2021. “Covid: Biden Promises Vaccines for All US Adults by End of May”, 3
March 2021. Available online: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-56262687.
Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC). 2021. “Panorama
Social de América Latina 2020”. Chile: Economic Commission for Latin America and
 the Caribbean. Available online: https://www.cepal.org/es/publicaciones/46687-
panorama-social-america-latina-2020.
Fares, Lygia Sabbag, Ana Luíza Matos de Oliveira and Lílian Nogueira Rolim. 2021.
“Working, Caring, Surviving: the Gender Dynamics of Remote Work in Brazil under
COVID-19”. In Daniel Wheatley, Irene Hardhill, and Sarah Buglass (eds), Handbook
of Research on Remote Work and Worker Well-Being in the Post-Covid-19 Era.
Hershey, PA: Business Science Reference.
Garikipati, Supriya and Uma Kambhampati. 2021. Leading the Fight against the Pandemic:
Does Gender Really Matter?, Feminist Economics, 27: 1–2, 401–418, DOI:
10.1080/13545701.2021.1874614
ILO. 2021. “Covid-19 and the World of Work”. ILO Monitor Seventh Edition. Available
online: https://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---dgreports/---
dcomm/documents/briefingnote/wcms_767028.pdf.
Nassif-Pires, L., L. Cardoso and A. Oliveira. 2021. Gênero e raça em evidência durante a
pandemia no Brasil: o impacto do auxílio emergencial na pobreza e extrema pobreza.
Nota de Política Econômica nº 10. Centro de Macroeconomia das Desigualdades.
MADE/USP.
Resende, Leandro. 2021. “Vacinação No Brasil Vai Acabar Em 2024 Mantendo o Ritmo
Atual, Segundo a Fiocruz”. CNN Brasil, 2 December 2021.
Silva, Jonas. 2020. “A Healthy, Innovative, Sustainable, Transparent, and Competitive
Methodology to Identify Twenty Benchmark Countries That Saved People Lives
against Covid-19 during 180 Days”, International Journal for Innovation, Education
and Research 8(10).
United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (2020). “The Least Developed
Countries Report 2020”. New York: United Nations. Published in:
https://unctad.org/system/files/official-document/ldcr2020_en.pdf
World Health Organization. 2021.
1. Demanding labour: How essential disability support workers
are marginalised in Australian industrial relations
Karen Douglas
1. Introduction
Disability support workers have long been a neglected group of workers in Aus-
tralian industrial relations and community conversations. In the Covid-19 pan-
demic, despite the essential life-giving and social support services that these
workers provide to some of our most vulnerable citizens, they remain marginal-
ised. Employment conditions for these workers are poor. Three decades of out-
sourcing, austerity and, more recently, increased marketisation of disability sup-
port services have entrenched the already minimal conditions of employment for
these overwhelmingly women workers.
Disability support workers occupy a part of the broader social and community
services (SACS) sector. This is a sector that has historically been marginalised in
their industrial rights by governments, unions and employers (Briggs, Meagher
and Healy 2007). It is shaped by the not-for-profit (NFP) and voluntary back-
ground that act to reduce the cultural and economic value of the work undertaken.
Reasons for this include the highly gendered nature of the workforce, support
being aligned with acts of altruism over paid labour and a march to neoliberalism
by marketising public services (Bailey, Robertson and Hulme 2014; Meagher and
Goodwin 2015). As Australia embeds an almost exclusively marketised and in-
dividualised system of social support for people with disability, the National Dis-
ability Insurance Scheme (NDIS), employment conditions for these workers are
increasingly insecure.
The disability support workforce supports people living with intellectual disabil-
ity, cognitive brain injury, psychosocial disability, physical disability or a com-
bination or two or more of these diagnoses. In comparison to professions such as
social workers, speech therapists, psychologists, the disability support workforce
are presented as low skilled and low knowledge workers (Baines, Kent and Kent
2019; Cortis et al. 2017).
Yet their work requirements are essential to life giving. They administer medica-
tion to clients, are accountable for safely transporting clients, attend medical ap-
pointments with clients and interpret instructions and information from these ap-
pointments. They complete comprehensive documentation on behalf of their cli-
ents to a particular standard, which is interpreted and applied by others. They are
responsible for managing the behaviours of their clients, including the difficult
relationships that the clients might have with others, sexual behaviour, aggression
or violence. This work is carried out in myriad environments including individual
or congregate care-living arrangements, shopping centres or workplaces (Baines
and Cunningham 2011; Cortis and van Toorn 2020b; Judd, Dorozenko and Breen
2017).
Accountabilities of disability support workers are broad and under-recognised.
Prior to Covid-19, workers reported significant work intensification. Role ambi-
guity, increased administrative responsibilities, complex relationship building,
inability to take breaks on shift and insufficient time to complete tasks—all con-
tribute to work stress and burnout (Judd, Dorozenko and Breen 2017; Vassos and
Nankervis 2012). This work is undertaken in circumstances where competitive
tendering underpins funding arrangements yet government is the overwhelming
provider of fixed funding arrangements (Charlesworth 2012; Cortis et al. 2017).
Moreover, the sector is based on a funding model that continues to underfund the
value of services and the workers who perform these crucial services (Macdonald,
Bentham and Malone 2018).
Already subject of poor working conditions emerging research indicates that dis-
ability support workers are experiencing greater vulnerability as a result of the
Covid-19 pandemic. Initial research highlights health costs to workers and clients
resulting from a lack of personal protective equipment (PPE) and other essential
equipment for the well-being of workers and clients (Cortis and van Toorn
2020a). Multiple employment relationships result in disability support workers
often having to deal with several clients (Kavanagh et al. 2020). Given the close
personal care that is required of disability support workers and the lack of PPE,
infection rates of Covid-19 for support workers and clients now feature (Hen-
rique-Gomes 2020).
It is timely then to reflect on what decent work for disability support workers in
Australia might look like by drawing on theoretical frames of gendered forms of
support and social care work and the role of neoliberalism in marketising essen-
tial, human services. The next section develops an account of some of the factors
that have entrenched deficient employment regulation and decent work for disa-
bility support workers in Australia. Second, the chapter examines the ways in
which neoliberal agendas have further entrenched poor employment regulation
before addressing how Covid-19 has amplified such deficiencies. Finally, the
chapter explores what conditions might be necessary to re-shape ways in which
the labour of support can be structured to reduce the current high levels of inse-
cure employment and provide greater industrial rights for workers.
2. The work of disability support
An analysis of persistent poor forms of employment regulation for disability sup-
port workers cannot be separated from the gendered nature of the work. Structural
inequalities in the labour market that emerge from this work being regarded as
‘women’s work’ persist. Precise data on the profile of the Australian disability
workforce is unavailable. This is in part due to poorly defined job classifications
by the main Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) labour force database. Drawing
on survey data conducted in the past decade, it is broadly accepted that:
• The average age of disability support workers is 40 and are older than the gen-
eral Australian workforce;
• About 80 per cent of workers are women;
• Almost 60 per cent work part time;
• The majority of disability support workers hold a certificate-level qualification;
• A further 90,000 full-time equivalent workers are needed to satisfy increased
demand (Department of Social Services 2019; Martin and Healy 2010).
These general features identify a need for further research to better understand
the nature and extent of the paid workforce. Pay in the sector has long been low
and the shift to marketised NDIS has highlighted increased downward pressure
on wages. Unions, advocacy groups and researchers have identified how the in-
dividualised model of care undermined wages by not accommodating such things
as travel time between support appointments, inadequate time to complete the
necessary administrative tasks and scarce funding for team meetings, training op-
portunities and professional development (Cortis et al. 2017, 2018; Macdonald,
Bentham and Malone 2018). In the Australian context, a reliance on employment
regulation based on the ideal ‘standard employment relationship’ shaped around
the labour of ‘men’s work’ converge to shape conditions that marginalise disabil-
ity support workers. Each of these themes are addressed below.
2.1. The gendered work of disability support
The paid work of social support and care has a long-term attachment to the labour
market, but until recently, little attention has been given to its structures, organi-
sation and employment conditions (Charlesworth 2012). Work responsibilities of
the support and care workforce are broad. England, Budig and Folbre (2002) de-
scribe this work as:

occupations in which workers are supposed to provide a face-to-face service that de-
velops the human capabilities of the recipient. By ‘human capabilities’ we refer to
health, skills, or proclivities that are useful to oneself or others. These include physical
and mental health, physical skills, cognitive skills, and emotional skills, such as self-
discipline, empathy, and care. Examples of caring labour include the work of teachers,
nurses, childcare workers, and therapists (2002: 455).

For disability support workers, these features also include a responsibility to pro-
vide face-to-face services essential to life. Disability support workers perform a
range of functions —from assistance for the most intimate personal hygiene ne-
cessities such as bowel, urine and menstrual care to the management of service
users’ integration in the community, factoring in the myriad behavioural and/or
physical attributes of users (England, Budig and Folbre 2002; Vassos and Nan-
kervis 2012).
The workplace can be an individual’s home, shared home with other family mem-
bers, group home settings, day-activity settings or any setting a user requests such
as a cinema, sports ground or restaurant (Cortis et al. 2017). And it is this location
of disability support work that creates a condition of undervaluation. By con-
trasting support work conducted in medical settings with the same or similar work
undertaken in the home setting, Lilly (2008) concludes that long-term recognition
of a workplace is considered itself to be a site of professionalism and thus the
work is considered to be skilled and of higher value. Other studies (Charlesworth
and Malone 2017) draw similar conclusions stating that support work in the home
setting is paid less than the same work being performed in a recognised work-
place. These workers are not subject to similar benefits of employment such as
the provision of training, rest breaks, stable hours and additional payments such
as overtime or shift allowances.
Casting support and care work as mostly the domain of women requires women
to self-sacrifice labour. Underfunded services enable employers to set minimum
pay rates that fall below the value of the work undertaken by workers (Cortis et
al. 2017). It also results in workers assuming increased work responsibilities and
performing unpaid work such as unpaid team meetings and unpaid travel time
between clients, to ensure continuity of quality services (Macdonald, Bentham
and Malone 2018). In these ways, support workers provide their labour for free
to maintain quality standards of support.
Scholars have examined why support workers labour under inferior conditions.
Applying Bordieu’s “habitus” theory, Hebson, Rubery and Grimshaw (2015) ar-
gue that support workers are habituated to low-paid work based on gender as-
sumptions in their social environment. While respondents said they find support
work rewarding, regardless of pay or conditions, further analysis reveals that
workers seem to align themselves with low-paid work owing to their understand-
ing of cultural expectations from them.
A further focus is on violence at the workplace, with some research suggesting
that women are used to accepting violence as an extension of their innate caring
responsibilities and gender expectations (Baines 2006). In-depth interviews with
disability support workers across different countries indicate that while men are
subjected to violence at the workplace, more women report incidents of violence,
often with more harmful and sexualised outcomes. One respondent, a three-year
support worker, observed:

There is always choice. They know who they want to hit and why - just like men
always know that it’s easier to hit women. It may be a cry for help and we need to help
them find better ways to ask for help, but it’s always a choice (Baines 2006: 144).
The influence of these cultural and societal norms remains. The work of disability
support is low paid, highly feminised, undervalued and underpinned by cultural
and industrial expectations of presumed selfless acts of unpaid labour by women
to ensure adequate care for clients (Charlesworth 2012). Collectively, these con-
ditions amount to a “care penalty” (England 2005). Ways in which this care pen-
alty have become embedded in Australian cultural and industrial relations settings
have a long history and require examination to chart a path forward.
2.2. The standard employment relationship
Overall, the broadening of the evidence base examining the work and employ-
ment of social support and care work continues to expose historical impacts of
poor labour regulation (Cortis et al. 2017). For much of the post-World War II
Keynesian economic period, full-time employment, representing the dominant
“standard employment relationship”, was advanced. This standard can be de-
scribed as “a continuous, full-time employment relationship where the worker has
one employer and normally works on the employer’s premises or under his or her
supervision” (Fudge and Vosko 2001: 273). The formation and subsequent break-
down of the standard employment relationship has shaped poor work and em-
ployment conditions for social support and care workers.
This normative ideal rested on the capacity of a worker to engage in full-time
employment leading to the development of a gendered “male breadwinner/female
caregiver” (Fudge 2006: 107) model of employment supported by cultural and
structural factors. Few childcare facilities and the development of taxation re-
gimes based on married (heterosexual) couples splitting incomes to gain social
security benefits, based on a primary and secondary wage earner model, en-
trenched the acceptance of this employment arrangement (Fudge 2006). This po-
sitioned men for full-time employment and women for paid, underpaid and un-
paid childcare roles, thereby instituting the “family wage” normative model of
gender relations.
As a stereotype or an idealised model, these arrangements became a recognised
feature in major parts of advanced economies. Many of these economies were
also signatories to the International Labour Organization (ILO) where underlying
regulations and standards of employment embedding this normative model of
employment were developed and promoted (Vosko 2010). Protective regulations
included regularising maximum working hours, guarding from arbitrary dismis-
sal, development of codified skill sets to safeguard crafts, advancement of career
paths via skill assessments, and securing employees’ voice through trade unions.
In this way, the standard employment relationship itself became an institutional-
ised feature of labour markets in advanced capitalist economies.
2.3. Australia and employment relations for the SACS sector
In the Australian industrial relations context, the development of the male bread-
winner/female caregiver model shaped the development of industrial relations
and employment regulation, including entrenching long-term discrimination.
While progressive for its time, the Australian industrial court determined in 1907
to set a minimum weekly wage; however, it “was based on the average weekly
expenditure of an unskilled male worker with a wife and three children” (Lyons
and Smith 2008: 6–7). This calculation created the conditions for the ongoing
structural inequality in the labour market for women which continue to obstruct
women’s wages in Australia.
This inequality has manifested in three key ways. First, there is a clear division
of wages based on binary sex characteristics and a cultural bias that men’s wages
are set around his obligation to provide for his wife and three children, irrespec-
tive of this being the reality. A significant case in 1918 reinforced this principle
when a lower wage for women workers in the clothing industry was determined
based on the assumption that women did not carry family responsibilities (Smith
2011). Second, care work is considered to be performed by women in unpaid
arrangements and continues to remain outside the oversight of employment reg-
ulation (Bennett 1986). Third, over time, ‘women’s work’ was classified as un-
skilled labour, hence, wages are different and lower than those of male workers.
Reflecting on the ways in which the minimum wage decision was embedded in
early industrial decisions Smith (2011: 649) notes “understandings of skill and
work cohered around male, full-time workers and training arrangements con-
gealed in the apprenticeship system, which were important features of excluding
women from areas of work assessed as ‘skilled’”.
While some exceptions were instituted to prevent women, operating in male-
dominated industries, from lessening men’s wages, it was not until progressive
advocates began agitating for change that institutionalised gender discrimination
began to be addressed. This structural inequality proceeded on three main levels.
Between 1969 and 1972, two significant wage claim cases were advanced (Smith
2011). The first case coalesced around an argument that ‘‘like’ work that women
performed could be compared to men’s work. The 1969 case resulted in the court
handing down a principle “of equal pay for equal work” (Smith 2011: 650). How-
ever, as men did not perform work culturally regarded as “women’s work”, the
principle was ineffective for raising women’s wages; no equivalent ‘value’ of
male work could be identified for comparative purposes. To overcome this bar-
rier, a second case was fought with a further principle of “equal pay for work of
equal value” (Smith 2011: 650), as determined in 1972. While this ostensibly
removed the need to find a ‘like’ male comparator, wage justice remained slow
for women as the court examined what ‘like’ occupations and industries could be
used to assess the value of women’s work.
The third barrier of what constitutes ‘skilled’ labour was also present in these
arguments. Wage claims for men’s labour was advanced based on the assessment
of ‘skill’. As noted by Smith (2011), men’s initial attachment to the labour market
was codified via training schemes thus presenting evidence of the skills attained.
Further, a demonstration of ‘skill’ required a category of ‘unskilled’ to achieve
higher wages regardless of sex characteristics (Bennett 1986). As women’s care
work was locked out of industrial coverage, no such skill assessments could be
demonstrated.
Representation in these court processes also impacted outcomes. Union advo-
cates, employers and arbitrators within the industrial jurisdiction were almost ex-
clusively male and women’s voices were little heard (Bennett 1986). Overall, the
history of male based skilled work and wages meant that despite the setting down
of the two principles in the industrial court, establishing the skilled value of work
determined to be women’s work remained elusive (Bennett 1986; Smith 2011).
For women workers operating in the SACS sector, these assumptions and condi-
tions of work presented barriers to gaining full industrial citizenship.
Taking a different route to achieve wage equity, women workers providing SACS
work such as disability support, aged care, childcare and family violence support
began organising associations and unions. Since the 1970s, activists in the Aus-
tralian SACS sector fought governments, unions and the community to gain in-
dustrial recognition as skilled workers (Briggs, Meagher and Healy 2007). Their
focus was to settle an ‘award’. Awards are collective contracts bargained between
employers and workers via their unions. They are the foundation of terms and
conditions of employment for all Australian workers. Awards were negotiated at
a centralised, industry level with all conditions flowing down to workers wher-
ever they work. Awards have formed the basis of employment rights since the
early 1900s; however, it was not until the 1990s that workers in the SACS sector
began to be covered by awards (Briggs, Meagher and Healy 2007).
Resistance from unionists, government and the community sector to these work-
ers acting in their industrial interests was strong. Actors used formal and informal
institutional power resources to condemn workers, mostly women, for claiming
wages for what was considered charitable work (Briggs, Meagher and Healy
2007). The victory of an award and industrial recognition of skilled wages, how-
ever, was short lived as Australia in the early 1990s moved towards decentralised,
enterprise bargaining at workplace level. Enterprise bargaining worked well for
workers where an award codifying all aspects of work, including wages, skills,
career structures, working time arrangements, existed and where union shop
steward formations were strong (Quinlan 1996). Given the lag in the SACS sector
achieving an award coupled with poor union representation, enterprise bargaining
for women workers in female-dominated work was compromised.
These weaknesses in employment regulation for SACS workers were again ad-
dressed in a union initiated nationwide equal pay case conducted between 2010 -
2012. The premise of the argument advanced by unions was that care work re-
mained undervalued as it continued to be considered as unskilled women’s work
(Cortis and Meagher 2012). The legacy of poor union representation placed
SACS workers in a weakened bargaining position and the systemic underfunding
of the sector due to its background in the voluntary and NFP sector continued to
diminish its value and thereby wages and skill recognition. In a split decision, it
was determined that wage discrimination in the SACS sector was present and that
part of this wage gap was due to gender. An important finding of this case was
that the workers lacked genuine opportunity to collectively bargain and improve
their terms and conditions of employment (Cortis and Meagher 2012).
Barriers to collective bargaining for these workers is partially addressed by un-
derfunding. The 2010 – 2012 equal pay case outlined above gave clear expression
to economic and political barriers to valuing women’s care and support work.
Business submissions highlighted the inability to pay any wage increase due to
overwhelming reliance on government funding (Cortis and Meagher 2012). At
the same time, the government acknowledged that disability support work is un-
derfunded (Productivity Commission 2011). In these conditions one approach to
managing the sector is via insecure forms of employment as a way of reducing
labour costs, asking workers to do more with less and undervaluing the provision
of support services (Cortis et al. 2017; Macdonald, Bentham and Malone 2018).
Understanding the economic, structural and political factors that underpin this
approach helps to identify opportunities that can reshape decent employment con-
ditions for disability support workers.
2.4. Insecure employment and work of disability support
Insecure work in the Australian context is defined by what protective labour reg-
ulation is absent. Applying the tenets of protections that define the ‘standard em-
ployment relationship’ the contours of insecure work can be outlined in a number
of ways. Full-time employees have access to a suite of protective labour regula-
tions applied to their working conditions which includes having maximum hours
of work per week (generally 38 hours), paid leave arrangements including per-
sonal leave, annual and carer leaves, protection against unfair dismissal rights
(after statutory time limits are met), and access to other benefits including shift
penalty payments, training and development and career progression opportunities
(Johnstone et al. 2012).
Applying these tests, about 49.5 per cent of Australia’s workforce is in secure
fulltime employment. Of the other 50 per cent of the workforce, about 20 per cent
are in casual employment, 13 per cent in part-time employment, 8 per cent are
independent contractors and 9 per cent are business operators who employ other
people (Victoria Government 2020). However, it is not the case that all workers
in part-time employment, that is people working a fraction of full-time hours,
have the same protection as offered to full-time workers. In addition, ‘casual’
employment defined by its hourly engagement is a further class of working ar-
rangement that has limited regulatory protective provisions wrapped around the
employment type (Johnstone et al. 2012).
Workers in the SACS sector are an example of those who do not have access to
the full set of regulatory protections despite their continuous service with one
employer on a part-time or casual basis. Employing workers on a casual or tem-
porary basis reduces an employer’s liability to pay costs such as paid leave or
provide other benefits of employment as made available to ongoing workers such
as skill development (Johnstone et al. 2012). Despite pay rises that formed part
of the equal pay case settlement, protective employment regulation, which shapes
the organisation of secure work, has not improved for SACS workers who con-
tinue to find themselves at the margins of decent work.
In respect of employment regulation for disability support workers, the prevailing
Social Community Home Care and Disability Services (SCHADS) Award 2010
specifies the national minimum employment requirements for workers, excluding
independent contractors. Within this award working time arrangements for part-
time workers differ significantly from awards applying to part-time workers in
other service and skilled work. For instance, the SCHADS award creates zero-
hour contracts where an employer is not required to set a minimum time commit-
ment for workers employed on a part-time basis. Other awards such as general
retail and manufacturing do specify minimum hours of pay for part-time workers
(Charlesworth 2012). As noted above, about 60 per cent of disability support
workers are employed on a ‘part-time’ basis, therefore, they have no statutory
right to minimum hours of work.
Minimum hours of employment are a feature of casual employment. In contrast
to part-time workers, casual employees are subject to a minimum engagement of
either one or two hours. Nevertheless, it remains difficult for casual or part-time
workers to schedule their hours of work and other personal and family commit-
ments due to the time insecurity in their employment arrangements (Charlesworth
2012).
The essence of disability work under the NDIS is to provide individualised sup-
port. In this way, workers across a number of sites can have several employers.
Unstable working time arrangements including long breaks between work en-
gagements adds a dimension of insecure work. Cortis and van Toorn (2020b: 2)
note that “Multiple very short shifts with unpaid time between them results in
long working hours and inadequate time for rest.” The SCHADS award is silent
on paid travel time thus it is unclear if workers can be paid. Emerging evidence
demonstrates that for some travel time is not paid (Cortis et al. 2018) and in other
circumstances providers may pay for 20 minutes travel time but this time is de-
ducted from the provision of client support (Macdonald Bentham and Malone
2018).
A further working time and pay deficiency is the “sleepover” shift that is inherent
in the disability support sector. A sleepover shift is performed in support homes
where employers have determined a worker is not required to be awake and work-
ing through the night hours. However, workers are rostered on for these shifts
year-round to attend to clients who do wake during night hours and require sup-
port (DHHS 2018). The sleepover shift is not to exceed eight hours and workers
are expected to sleep during the shift. The SCHADS award (2010) set out obliga-
tions on employers to provide conditions conducive to sleep, however, no regu-
latory provision exists for workers to bring disputes against the employer if these
conditions are not met.
Workers undertaking a sleepover shift are required to be on premises for the
length of the shift however, the hours are not counted as hours worked and are
paid at an allowance that broadly equates to around four hours pay (DHHS 2018;
SCHADS 2010). These hours spent on premises are not used to calculate other
accumulated benefits such as annual and personal leave. Emerging research is
demonstrating the poor working arrangements for workers employed under these
conditions (Dorrian, Grant and Banks 2017). One worker described the impact of
the sleepover shift as:

Our rosters are set but shocking. E.g. 9.30 [am]-9pm on Thursday. Followed by 3 x
3pm-10am sleepover and 7pm-10am shifts then 2 days of 3pm-9pm = about 40 hours
paid plus 27 hours on sleepover in 5 days (Cortis and van Toorn 2020b: 32).

Significantly, many employers in the 2012 equal pay case described their depend-
ence on the sleepover shift to run services and asserted that they would be unable
to provide services if the union’s claim for an increased sleepover allowance pay-
ment was accepted (Cortis and Meagher 2012).
The impact of unstable working conditions is well documented both from the
worker’s and client’s perspective. A significant determining factor of quality sup-
port is a stable workforce and the importance of relationships between workers
and clients. Good relationships develop client’s confidence and act as an indicator
of quality support. Robinson and Chenoweth (2011) in their critique of abuse in
supported accommodation services note the deleterious impact on clients when
employment is increasingly casualised:

The increasing number of short-term and casual staff has serious implications for the
recognition and response to patterns of abuse and neglect in particular, as there is a
dearth of long-term moral witnesses to note the cumulative effect of this maltreatment.
The moral or ethical responsibilities of workers to take action to address abuse and
neglect are not prioritized in service systems which emphasize technical and manage-
rial elements (2011: 65).
In addition, stable employment contributes to developing a skilled and knowl-
edgeable workforce prepared and able to perform the range of job responsibilities
depended upon by people with disability. Individual programmes, directly tai-
lored for people to assist them achieve their goals or manage their behaviours,
form the basis of service delivery. It has been argued that for people with intel-
lectual disability to experience complete social inclusion – to be valued and re-
spected – the quality of support provided in supported living accommodation is
vital (Ockenden, Ashman and Beadle-Brown 2014). This quality service provi-
sion depends on skilled workers yet the SCHADS award that covers disability
workers is deficient in this regard.
The sector is aware of the barriers insecure work presents towards maintaining a
skilled and knowledgeable workforce. Staff retention in circumstances where
skilled work is undervalued and poorly paid but where a stable workforce is nec-
essary for the provision of quality services is problematic (NDS 2019). Despite
the evidence supporting the need for a stable and skilled workforce, the basis of
disability support in Australia has moved to an individualised footing, creating
further fractures in employment conditions.
3. Marketisation of disability support
An extensive body of literature now exists detailing how economic practices priv-
ileging competition in labour markets have impacted the provision of public ser-
vices. Grounded in the assumption that greater productivity is achieved through
less government intervention direct public services have been marketised through
processes of competitive tendering (Meagher and Goodwin 2015). For labour-
intensive support services such as disability support work, outsourcing has meant
more services being delivered by the already underfunded NFP sector, which re-
lies almost exclusively on fixed funding arrangements from the government
(Charlesworth 2012).
More recently, the introduction of the NDIS has further marketised the provision
of disability services (Productivity Commission 2011, 2017). Motivated by disa-
bility rights activists, who have long fought for the right to make decisions about
their own support arrangements, the NDIS represents a significant step in their
fight for respect, autonomy and social inclusion (Baines, Macdonald and Stanford
2020). The NDIS has been created as a market-driven model of government-
funded social support (Productivity Commission 2011). As with other marketised
care systems, users are consumers who purchase their own services (Green and
Mears 2014).
Commencing in 2013 and reaching a full national rollout in 2016, this shift to
personalised support has created a demand for disability support workers and al-
tered their employment arrangements. Similar to ‘cash for care’ models across
Europe, North America and the United Kingdom (Macdonald and Charlesworth
2016), personalised funding replaces the former block funding arrangements that
characterised services for people living with disability. In preparation for its
rollout, NDIS funding needs were assessed by a working group consisting of em-
ployers, consultants and employees of the agency that has been established to
operationalise the system. The group formulated a series of assumptions of the
costs of the NDIS which were eventually implemented. As noted by Cortis et al.
(2018), people living with disability, unions and NFP employers who provided
the bulk of services were absent from the decision-making process.
Evidence since the rollout of the NDIS attest to cost assumptions excluding pay-
ment for work central to the delivery of services. Staff meetings, spaces where
workers can exchange ideas and learn from each other, training, travel time be-
tween clients and the relational aspects of support work that assist people living
with intellectual disability develop the confidence and skills to participate in the
broader community were not priced into minimum payrates (Dowse et al. h 2016;
Macdonald, Bentham and Malone 2018). Work intensification is present as work-
ers in individual operating environments are required to manage multiple issues
in short periods of time and without a scaffolding of support systems around them
to problem-solve complex issues (Cortis et al. 2018; Judd, Dorozenko and Breen
2017). The lack of funding for skills that need to be developed particularly for
clients with complex needs while identified early in the roll out of the NDIS still
require consideration (Dowse et al. 2016).
The federal government in a recent Department of Social Services (2019) work-
force strategy notes that an additional equivalent of 90,000 fulltime disability
support workers are required to meet the expected demand for individualised ser-
vices. To put this in context, this means about one in five new jobs created in
Australia from 2018–2023 will be disability support workers and in the first full
year of operation (2018–2019), the federal government will invest more than $22
billion (over 1 per cent GDP) of tax payer’s money in the scheme (Productivity
Commission 2017). In doing so, the government continues a system that has long
been recognised as underfunded, undervalued and fragmented, a reason given to
replace the former block funding arrangements with the new individualised pro-
vision of services. For workers, this approach has created conditions for increased
individualised work arrangements.
Evidence of on demand work increasing in the sector as a result of individualising
and marketising publicly funded services is emerging. Tied to the legislative
framework of the NDIS that centres ‘choice and control’ (Productivity Commis-
sion 2017: 2) for people with disability in all decision-making in their lives, the
individualised and marketised scheme has presented fertile ground for online
platforms to flourish. Creating a system focused on purchasing personalised ser-
vices has enabled online platforms to enter the public market and provide imme-
diate, matching services to cater to the demand in services. Online platforms en-
able the consumer to directly engage a worker and in so doing cut out the service
provider which has traditionally been the conduit between the consumer and
worker (Cortis and van Toorn 2020b). In the historical block funding arrange-
ment, it is the service provider, often a NFP community organisation, who has
been responsible for paying appropriate wages and conditions of employment.
Moreover, in this mode of service delivery there was a greater emphasis on reg-
ulatory oversight as the service provider as part of their contractual arrangements
with government were required to meet statutory obligations (Flanagan 2018). In
the gig environment these arrangements are left to the consumer and worker.
Under the NDIS, consumers have three ways of engaging workers; they can di-
rectly employ their own workers; use a third party to facilitate an engagement
with a worker; or have the government agency manage the engagement on their
behalf (Baines Macdonald and Stanford 2020; Victoria Government 2020). As
argued by Baines Macdonald and Stanford (2020) the first two forms of engage-
ment enable an independent contractor arrangement to operate overlooking the
provisions set out in the SCHADS award. Overall, the reduction of regulatory
oversight via employment arrangements has set the conditions for worker insecu-
rity which have been exposed under Covid-19 conditions.
Prior to Covid-19 enveloping Australia, two separate Royal Commission enquir-
ies were underway examining aged care services and disability support. Both
driven by cases of serious neglect the two enquiries quickly pivoted and ad-
dressed service failures under Covid-19. Initially, extensive scrutiny was placed
on aged care services which saw massive outbreaks of the virus occur in environ-
ments where close personal contact featured and personal protective equipment
(PPE) was either not readily available or workers were not sufficiently trained in
the proper use of PPE. Lack of adequate regulatory oversight also featured as a
reason for services failing to take adequate care for patients and workers (Com-
monwealth of Australia 2020). These gaps saw a disastrous second wave of
Covid-19 consume aged care homes in Victoria resulting in over 700 deaths and
the imposition of a severe three-month lockdown.
For disability support workers and people living with disability gaps in funding
and lack of regulatory oversight similarly proved disastrous. In their study of 357
disability support workers Kavanagh et. al (2020) note it was not until July 17,
some four months after the global pandemic was declared, that the common-
wealth government made PPE mandatory for disability workers. Moreover, the
authors note the impact of multiple employer-employee relationships-created in-
fection sites for Covid-19. As identified earlier, this cohort of the Australian
workforce is older than the national average. Older citizens have been identified
at increased risk of contracting Covid. In combination with inadequate safe work
arrangements, vulnerable clients, working in close proximity, additional risks are
faced by the older workers (Kavanagh et al. 2020). In addition to a lack of PPE,
the authors identified the demands placed on workers to operate across multiple
sites to generate a decent income. Without access to paid leave entitlements as a
result of their insecure work arrangements and insufficient government funding
to support people on low incomes, transmission spread across workers and people
with disability.
Similarly, in their survey of 2,341 disability support workers, Cortis and van
Toorn (2020a, 2020b) lay out the stress and workplace danger that the workers
experience as insecure employment and underfunding of services combine to am-
plify poor forms of work. Significantly, in their report, the authors provided evi-
dence of underfunding of services resulting in already low-paid workers having
to purchase their own PPE and at times PPE for clients. Workers also reported
regularly work with more than one client to secure a decent weekly wage. Under
Covid conditions these workers reported increased stress and anxiety from work-
ing in unsafe conditions. These examples show the ways in which the move to a
marketised and individualised system via the NDIS have contributed to deficient
work and care arrangements for workers and vulnerable citizens.
The delay in providing decent working conditions was devastating for people
with disability and workers whose lives were placed at risk. The absence of basic
equipment, sufficient core training for staff working in close physical spaces, an
inability to maintain a safe workplace because of the nature of the work and in-
adequate funding in these sectors created circumstances enabling the deadly virus
to spread so rapidly. This structural vulnerability undermines health and safety
for workers and clients and, as the current pandemic demonstrates, creates defi-
ciencies in disability work arrangements.
4. Decent work and disability support
Cultural and industrial barriers to valuing the work of disability support have been
outlined previously. Drawing on the concept of ‘decent work’ as set out by the
ILO, this section explores what changes can be made in the Australian industrial
setting to value disability support workers. This task is significant. Self-autonomy
arguments from advocates coherently set out why the provision of disability sup-
port services required regeneration (Green and Mears 2014). However, questions
arise as to whether it is acceptable to achieve one set of social rights at the expense
of another (Baines, Macdonald and Stanford 2020). However, evidence is mount-
ing that the non-standard employment that underpins the work of disability sup-
port creates gaps for workers and clients (Cortis and van Toorn2020b; Macdon-
ald, Bentham and Malone 2018).
The right to fair treatment, a stable income and work that protects workers from
exploitation underpin the legal framework inherent in the decent work agenda
(ILO 2013). Employment regulation that flows from the application of these
principles as argued by Rubery (2017) offers eight main functions. For workers
these include the right to social protection/health, income security, equal access
to employment, fair treatment, human rights including the right to non-discrimi-
nation, and employee voice. Overall, these individual functions contribute to the
economic well-being of the community and productivity growth of a country in
the long term— the final two functions of Rubery’s model (2017: 40–43).
As pointed out previously, disability support workers are one of the fastest grow-
ing workforces in the country. It is also the case that regulatory gaps in working
time coupled with underfunding create decent work deficits. While the NDIS is
ostensibly market driven, being at arm’s length from the government, it is also
wholly government funded where the latter makes specific choices in the ways
they choose to interact with the scheme: “... in this new market, power is also
centralised because the government has increased ability to control funding but
lessened direct accountability for services and their effectiveness” (Baines, Mac-
donald and Stanford 2020: 18). Addressing regulatory gaps for workers presents
an opportunity to ameliorate poor conditions of employment.
Drawing a clear nexus between decent working conditions and quality services is
a path forward. Evidence prior to the pandemic illustrated that the work of disa-
bility support is undervalued (Cortis et. al 2018; Macdonald, Bentham and
Malone 2018). Employers report difficulties in maintaining a skilled workforce
due to the low pay, fractured working time arrangements and disregard for the
complexity of skills required that are inherent requirements of the role (NDS
2019). Skilled workers are required for this work however, the legacy of the
workforce being considered ‘unskilled’ is amplified under the NDIS. The basis
of direct funding for purchased services does not adequately provide funding for
the development of a skilled workforce including training, supervision and men-
toring. Nor does it leave sufficient time for an important part of the role, relational
development, which is crucial to quality care: “Prices were built on assumptions
of consistently high levels of worker utilisation: 95% of paid time (excluding
leave) was assumed to be ‘client facing’. Just three minutes per hour of workers’
time was assumed to be either not spent directly with users or travelling between
them” (Cortis et. al, 2018: 590). Thus far the Australian government has contin-
ued on the path of marketisation with the NDIS. In doing so, gaps in quality care
and workers’ rights have been exposed. How unions and community actors might
shift the government to revisit the provision of disability support services is a
large task.
The conservative Australian government in its response to the Covid-19 pan-
demic has demonstrated it can act to provide public monies for the greater good.
After intense campaigning from unions and the broader community the govern-
ment in the latter weeks of April 2020 after Covid-19 shutdowns created a dou-
bling of the unemployed instituted a time limited wage payment subsidy (Kaine
2020; Cassells and Duncan 2020). Split along two lines and underpinned by spe-
cific eligibility criteria, challenged by unions and civic society concerned about
the numbers of people excluded from receiving funds, the federal government
agency responsible for payment of welfare benefits introduced a lower
‘JobSeeker’ payment and higher ‘Jobkeeper’ programme. Jobseeker provided a
boost to those on unemployment benefits whereas ‘JobKeeper’ was a supplement
based programme applying to businesses and NFP operators whose annual turn-
over had both dropped by 30 per cent and was under $1 billion per year. Workers
were also required to meet an eligibility test to access JobKeeper funds: they had
to be employed in either a part-time or full-time capacity or if a casual employee
have more than 12 months’ service with the employer (Cassells and Duncan
2020). Casual workers with less than 12 months employment with one employer
are ineligible for this supplement: “We estimate there to be around 950,000 inel-
igible casual workers with the majority employed in the accommodation and food
services, retail trade, and health care and social assistance sectors. A higher share
of these workers are women” (Cassells and Duncan 2020: 1).
Despite debates around the eligibility criteria, the role of employers not workers
claiming benefits, and the impending end dates to the increased payments, the
conservative government shifted under intense political campaigning to introduce
payments for the community (Spies-Butcher 2020).
Returning to Rubery’s (2017) eight functions of employment regulation, evidence
of the conservative government’s application of these tenets are apparent. Taking
the last of Rubery’s functions first, “economic well-being of the community and
long-term productivity growth” (2017: 40–43), the Australian government,
through the JobKeeper and JobSeeker supplements, has acted in the macroeco-
nomic interests of the country. Placing the economic well-being of individuals at
the core of a fiscal response, it has gained support from across the country and
has introduced a different footing for industrial relations (Kaine 2020). The con-
servative government and union movement have worked in parallel to design
some job-saving and income-generating provisions. However, whether this can
continue remains to be seen.
Simultaneously, gaps in the provision of healthcare, based on insecure working
arrangements have come to the fore in Covid-19. The undervaluation of disability
work seeps into the general underfunding of services. While undertaking a
broader interview-based qualitative analysis of disability support workers’ con-
ditions, researchers, Cortis and Van Toorn (2020a) were able to include specific
Covid-19 questions as the pandemic grew in Australia. An overall remark from
one worker captures the anxiety in which workers and clients have been placed
during the pandemic:

Covid-19 has affected our clients in a big way. They do not understand why they are
suddenly not going to their day programs, why we aren’t going out anywhere on week-
ends etc., why they can’t have that "extra" roll of toilet paper or piece of toast (due to
shortages in availability). It has led to B.O.Cs (behaviours of concern) and frustration
for the clients. We are doing our best to keep them busy and entertain them, but it is
becoming increasingly difficult to manage (Cortis and van Toorn2020a: 8).
And

[My employer] is slow to act. We do not have enough PPE equipment in the houses if
residents become unwell with COVID 19. I’m concerned about the amount of casual
agency staff coming into the facility to support the residents, increasing the risk of
spreading COVID 19 to are vulnerable residents. And what happens during lockdown?
We need a plan (2020a: 7).

Covid-19 infection rates among health workers and the large numbers of deaths
of people in aged care have alarmed the community. In this way, the neoliberal
arguments advanced to introduce the NDIS with an emphasis on individualised
funding supplied under market conditions have highlighted barriers to decent
work, bringing to the fore the debate on employment arrangements (Spies-
Butcher 2020).
Drawing on the other functions of employment regulation as set out by Rubery
(2017), the above analysis has highlighted some identifiable features. For disa-
bility support workers who have lost employment, the JobSeeker supplementary
payment provides some relief from financial insecurity, however, as many work-
ers are casuals they are locked out of the higher JobKeeper payment. Income in-
security is endemic in this sector as evidenced by analyses of fractured working
time, lack of payment for travel time and the allowance paid for a sleepover shift.
Moreover, workers’ rights to fair pay for the complexity of work they undertake
is not catered for in the NDIS.
Workers feel powerless and alone in employment arrangements where supervi-
sion, mentoring and problem-solving opportunities are not made available as the
costing of the NDIS does not set aside adequate funding for these functions. Over-
all, the right to fair treatment for workers, and by extension consumers, remains
elusive under the NDIS. The Covid-19 pandemic brings these inequalities into
sharp relief.
5. Conclusion
This chapter has demonstrated that the work of disability support has consistently
remained outside Australia’s employment regulation regime. The pervasiveness
of the ‘standard employment relationship’ has underpinned the development of
industrial regulation in Australia. But these principles shaped employment pro-
tection around features of work rarely applied in the social and community ser-
vices sector. Significantly, gendered arrangements of work have created condi-
tions of exclusion of women-dominated work from the prevailing regulatory sys-
tem. It is necessary to understand the intricacies of disability support work and
social and support work more broadly to value these workers and the work they
perform on behalf of others. It is for these reasons that these workers have been
constantly situated at the margins of decent employment regulation.
In the Australian example, decent work for disability support workers remains
elusive. Addressing poor working conditions for disability workers requires
structural and political change. Shifting risk on to workers in high risk work en-
vironments requires re-thinking. While much has been written about poor work-
ing conditions for disability support workers, achieving change to ameliorate
these deficiencies has been problematic. The Covid-19 pandemic has illustrated
in grave ways the failings of a disability support sector based on insecure forms
of employment. A number of conditions for a renewed commitment to disability
sector workers and the sector more broadly is present. Evidence of how the work-
force has been harmed in the pandemic provides unions and the broader commu-
nity sector with opportunities to campaign for a fundamental reshaping of the
disability and social and community support sector. How unions and community
sector advocates may harness this moment to improve regulation for disability
support workers is unknown. While some cooperation between unions and the
conservative government has developed it is unclear whether this can be main-
tained as Australia emerges from the pandemic.

References
Baines, Donna. 2006. “Staying with people who slap us around: Gender, juggling
responsibilities and violence in paid (and unpaid) care work”, Gender, Work &
Organization 13(2): 129–151.
Baines, Donna, and Ian Cunningham. 2011. “‘White knuckle care work’: Violence, gender
and new public management in the voluntary sector”, Work, Employment and Society
25(4): 760–776.
Baines, Donna, Paul Kent and Sally Kent. 2019. “‘Off my own back’: Precarity on the
frontlines of care work”, Work, Employment and Society 33(5): 877–887.
Baines, Donna, Fiona Macdonald and Jim Stanford. 2020. “Zero-sum social policy:
Going gig and the Australian National Disability Insurance Scheme”, Studies in Political
Economy 101(1):17–34.
Bailey, Janis, Michelle Robertson, and Lyndall Hulme. 2014. "Challenging the ‘care
penalty’: The Queensland pay equity campaign for community services workers",
Journal of Industrial Relations 56(1): 43–61.
Bennett, Laura. 1986. “Job classification and women workers: institutional practices,
technological change and the conciliation and arbitration system 1907–72”, Labour
History 51: 11–23.
Briggs, Chris, Gabrielle Meagher, and Karen Healy. 2007. “Becoming an Industry: The
Struggle of Social and Community Workers for Award Coverage, 1976—2001”,
Journal of Industrial Relations 49(4): 497–521.
Cassells, Rebecca and Alan Duncan. 2020. "JobKeepers and JobSeekers: How many workers
will lose and how many will gain?", Bankwest Curtin Economics Centre Research Brief
 COVID-19 (3): 1–6. Available online: https://bcec.edu.au/assets/2020/03/BCEC-
COVID19-Brief-3-Job-Seekers-and-Keepers_FINAL-1.pdf. Accessed on 31 August
2020.
Charlesworth, Sara. 2012. “Decent working conditions for care workers?: the intersections of
employment regulation, the funding market and gender norms”, Australian Journal of
Labour Law 25(2): 107–127.
Charlesworth, Sara, and Jenny Malone. 2017. “Re-imagining decent work for home care
workers in Australia”, Labour & Industry: a Journal of the Social and Economic
Relations of Work 27(4): 284–301.
Commonwealth of Australia. 2020. “Royal Commission into aged care quality and safety.
Aged care and COVID-19: a special report.” Available online:
https://agedcare.royalcommission.gov.au/publications/aged-care-and-covid-19-
special-report. Accessed on 1 November 2020.
Cortis, Natasha, Fiona Macdonald, Bob Davidson, and Eleanor Bentham. 2017. “Reasonable,
necessary and valued: Pricing disability services for quality support and decent jobs”,
SPRC Report 10/17. Sydney: Social Policy Research Centre. Available online:
https://www.arts.unsw.edu.au/sites/default/files/documents/NDIS_Pricing_Report.pdf.
Cortis, Natasha, Fiona Macdonald, Bob Davidson, and Eleanor Bentham. 2018.
“Underpricing care: A case study of Australia's National Disability Insurance Scheme”,
International Journal of Care and Caring 2(4): 587–593.
Cortis, Natasha and Gabrielle Meagher. 2012. “Recognition at last: care work and the equal
remuneration case”, Journal of Industrial Relations 54(3): 377–385.
Cortis, Natasha and Georgia van Toorn. 2020a. “The disability workforce and COVID-19:
initial experiences of the outbreak”, Sydney, Social Policy Research Centre. Available
online: https://unsworks.unsw.edu.au/fapi/datastream/unsworks:66998/bin55cddfa9-
a402-4ccb-bac5-406f36c16451?view=true&xy=01. Accessed on 4 May 2020.
Cortis, Natasha and Georgia van Toorn. 2020b. “Working in new disability markets: A
survey of Australia's disability workforce”, Sydney, Social Policy Research Centre.
Available online:
http://unsworks.unsw.edu.au/fapi/datastream/unsworks:67158/binc5647978-1ec1-
45ee-891d-2055cab60a63?view=true&xy=01. Accessed on 5 September 2020.
Department of Social Services. 2019. “Growing the NDIS market and workforce: Supporting
the market to deliver innovative, people-centred services so that participants can
achieve their goals”. Available online:
https://www.dss.gov.au/sites/default/files/documents/03_2019/220319_-
_ndis_market_and_workforce_strategy_acc-_pdf-.pdf. Accessed on 3 April 2020.
DHHS. 2018. The State of Victoria T/A The Department of Health and Human Services
(AG2018/2395) Disability Services Enterprise Agreement Victoria 2018-2022.
Available online:
https://www.fwc.gov.au/documents/documents/agreements/fwa/ae500582.pdf.
Dorrian, Jillian, Crystal Grant and Siobhan Banks. 2017. “An industry case study of ‘stand-
up’ and ‘sleepover’ night shifts in disability support: Residential support worker
perspectives”, Applied Ergonomics 58: 110–118.
Dowse, Leanne, Michele Wiese, Angela Dew, Louisa Smith, Susan Collings and Aminath
Didi. 2016. “More, better, or different? NDIS workforce planning for people with
 intellectual disability and complex support needs”, Journal of Intellectual and
Developmental Disability 41(1): 81–84.
England, Paula. 2005. “Emerging theories of care work”, Annual Review of Sociology 31:
381–399.
England, Paula, Michelle Budig, and Nancy Folbre. 2002. “Wages of virtue: The relative pay
of care work”, Social Problems 49(4): 455–473.
Flanagan, Frances. 2018. “Theorising the gig economy and home-based service work”,
Journal of Industrial Relations 61(1): 57–78.
Fudge, Judy. 2006. “Precarious employment in Australia and Canada: the road to labour law
reform”, Australian Journal of Labour Law19(2): 105–126.
Fudge, Judy, and Leah F. Vosko. 2001. “Gender, segmentation and the standard employment
relationship in Canadian labour law, legislation and policy”, Economic and Industrial
Democracy 22(2): 271–310.
Green, Jenny and Jane Mears. 2014. “The implementation of the NDIS: Who wins, who
loses?”, Cosmopolitan Civil Societies: An Interdisciplinary Journal 6(2): 25–39.
Hebson, Gail, Jill Rubery and Damian Grimshaw. 2015. “Rethinking job satisfaction in care
work: Looking beyond the care debates”, Work, Employment and Society 29(2): 314–
330.
Henrique-Gomes, Luke. 2020. “More than 30 residential disability services linked to Covid-
19 outbreaks in Victoria”, The Guardian, Australian Edition, 7 August 2020. Available
online: https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/aug/07/more-than-30-
residential-disability-services-linked-to-covid-19-outbreaks-in-victoria.
International Labour Office (ILO). 2013. Decent work indicators: guidelines for producers
and users of statistical and legal framework indicators: ILO manual: second version.
ILO, Geneva. Available online: https://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---
dgreports/---integration/documents/publication/wcms_229374.pdf 09-09-20.
Johnstone, Richard, Shae McCrystal, Igor Nossar, Michael Quinlan, Michael Rawling and
Joellen Riley. 2012. Beyond Employment: the Legal Regulation of Work Relationships.
Sydney: The Federation Press.
Judd, Megan J., Kate P. Dorozenko and Lauren J. Breen. 2017. “Workplace stress, burnout
and coping: a qualitative study of the experiences of Australian disability support
workers”, Health & Social Care in the Community 25(3): 1109–1117.
Kaine, Sarah. 2020. “Australian Industrial Relations and COVID-19”, Journal of Australian
Political Economy, 85 (Winter): 130–137.
Kavanagh, Anne, Stefanie Dimov and Mari Shields. 2020. "Disability support workers: the
forgotten workforce in COVID-19”, Research Report. Melbourne: The University of
Melbourne. Available online: https://doi.org/10.26188/12756428, Accessed on 4
August 2020.
Lilly, Meredith B. 2008. “Medical versus social work-places: constructing and compensating
the personal support worker across health care settings in Ontario, Canada”, Gender,
Place and Culture 15(3): 285–299.
Lyons, Michael and Meg Smith. 2008. “Gender pay equity, wage fixation and industrial
relations reform in Australia”, Employee Relations 30(1): pp. 4–19.
Macdonald, Fiona, Eleanor Bentham, and Jenny Malone. 2018. “Wage theft, underpayment
and unpaid work in marketised social care”, The Economic and Labour Relations
Review, 29(1): 80–96.
Macdonald, Fiona and Sara Charlesworth. 2016. “Cash for care under the NDIS: Shaping
care workers’ working conditions?”, Journal of Industrial Relations 58(5): 627–646.
Martin, Bill and Josh Healy. 2010. "Who works in community services", A profile of
Australian workforces in child protection, juvenile justice, disability services and
general community services”, National Institute of Labour Studies, Adelaide.
Meagher, Gabrielle, and Susan Goodwin. 2015. “Introduction: capturing marketisation in
Australian social policy”. In Gabrielle Meagher and Susan Goodwin (eds), Markets,
Rights and Power in Australian Social Policy. Sydney: Sydney University Press, pp.1–
27.
NDS. 2019. State of the Disability Sector Report 2019. Available online:
https://www.nds.org.au/news/state-of-the-disability-sector-report-2019-released.
Accessed on 4 August 2020.
Ockenden, John, Bev Ashman and Julie Beadle-Brown. 2014. “Active support–fundamental
to positive behaviour support”, Research and Practice in Intellectual and
Developmental Disabilities 1(2): 98–107.
Productivity Commission. 2011. Disability Care and Support, Report no.54. Canberra.
Productivity Commission. Available online:
https://www.pc.gov.au/inquiries/completed/disability-support/report. Accessed on 31
August 2020.
Productivity Commission 2017. National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) Costs, Study
Report. Canberra. Productivity Commission. Available online:
http://www.pc.gov.au/inquiries/completed/ndis-costs/report. Accessed on 31 August
2020.
Quinlan, Michael. 1996. "The reform of Australian industrial relations: Contemporary trends
and issues", Asia Pacific Journal of Human Resources 34(2): 3–27.
Robinson, Sally, and Lesley Chenoweth. 2011. “Preventing abuse in accommodation
services: From procedural response to protective cultures”, Journal of Intellectual
Disabilities 15(1): 63–74.
Rubery, Jill. 2017. “Reregulating for inclusive labour markets”. In Colin Fenwick and Valérie
Van Goethem (eds), Regulating for Equitable and Job-Rich Growth. Cheltenham:
Edward Elgar Publishing Limited, pp. 31–62.
SCHADS Award. 2010. Social, Community, Home Care and Disability Services Award
2010. Available online:
https://www.fwc.gov.au/documents/documents/modern_awards/award/ma000100/defau
lt.htm. Accessed on 31 August 2020.
Smith, Meg. 2011. “Gender equity: The Commission’s legacy and the challenge for Fair
Work Australia”, Journal of Industrial Relations 53(5): 647–661.
Spies-Butcher, Ben. 2020. “The temporary welfare state: The political economy of job
keeper, job seeker and 'snap back'”, Journal of Australian Political Economy 85
(Winter): 155–163.
Vassos, Maria V. and Karen L. Nankervis. 2012. “Investigating the importance of various
individual, interpersonal, organisational and demographic variables when predicting job
burnout in disability support workers”, Research in Developmental Disabilities 33(6):
1780–1791.
Victoria Government. 2020. Report of the Inquiry into the Victorian On-Demand Workforce.
Available online: https://s3.ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/hdp.au.prod.app.vic-
engage.files/4915/9469/1146/Report_of_the_Inquiry_into_the_Victorian_On-
Demand_Workforce-reduced_size.pdf. Accessed on 15 September 2020.
Vosko, Leah. 2010. Managing the Margins Gender, Citizenship, and the International
Regulation of Precarious Employment. Oxford University Press: Oxford.
2. Gendered impacts of COVID-19 in Brazil: a preliminary assess-
ment
Lygia Sabbag Fares
Ana Luíza Matos de Oliveira
Luísa Cardoso
Raquel Guimarães Luiza Nassif-Pires
1. Introduction
This chapter provides a critical review of the impacts of selected policies imple-
mented in Brazil in the last 20 years through the gender perspective. As we argue,
Brazil took very important institutional steps in the first decade of this century to
fight against gender inequality but unfortunately, it seems that the apparatus has
been dismantled in the last five years. As a consequence of the disregard of the
federal government, when the pandemic hit Brazil, women were more vulnerable.
It is known that the impact of the pandemic for women depends on the different
institutional arrangements such as the role of the state as welfare provider and the
cultural norms. The amount of necessary productive and reproductive work as
well as the allocation of those amongst members of a household varies from coun-
try to country, but consistently women carry a larger share of unpaid care work.
As a result of the sexual division of caregiving, since women stay with, assist,
protect and nurture family members, they are disproportionally burdened by
Covid-19 (Alon et al. 2020). Furthermore, rooted inequalities that women face on
a myriad of dimensions such as income, time use and violence, also vary accord-
ing to race, class, region and access to a protection network.
In the context of Covid-19, when enormous economic and health impacts are be-
ing felt and life has been disrupted, gender and race cannot be ignored. This chap-
ter contributes to this discussion, with a focus on gender. We analyse key issues
regarding the gendered impacts of the pandemic in Brazil, and how Covid-19
coping policies have addressed different aspects of gender inequality. To do so,
we draw on the gender mainstreaming conceptual framework and provide a re-
view of current policies to argue that the Brazilian government fails in not con-
sidering a gender perspective and in not prioritising women and girls in the re-
covery and mitigating responses.
We also show that some of the policies, albeit neither gender nor race specific,
implemented to fight the economic impacts of Covid-19 such as the cash relief
programme, have had an important effect in protecting women and women of
colour and in delaying an increase in gender and race income inequality. Unfor-
tunately, the early termination of the cash relief programme combined with the
fact that other policies did not protect women and minorities from social and eco-
nomic vulnerabilities will lead to an increase in gender and racial inequality in
Brazil in 2021.
This chapter is divided into six sections, including the introduction. The second
section provides an overall view of the impacts that Covid-19 has had in Brazil
so far. The third section analyses the gender mainstreaming conceptual frame-
work in the light of the current (under) development in Brazil. Next, differential
impacts of Covid-19 on women in Brazil, considering labour market outcomes
and time use, are evaluated. The fifth section lists the current government policies
at the federal level dealing with Covid-19 and examines whether these policies
are in line with the gender mainstreaming framework. Conclusively remarks point
out to a probable widening of gender inequalities in Brazil in the near future.
2. Brazil and the mishandling of a pandemic
The Covid-19 pandemic reached Brazil in February 2020, when the country was
already in the course of a huge economic and social crisis. Since 2015, an auster-
ity macroeconomic agenda has prevailed and the country experienced disastrous
socioeconomic outcomes. From 2017 to 2019, Brazil’s gross domestic product
grew, on average, 1.1 per cent per year. Additionally, data reveals in the worsen-
ing of several economic indicators such as increasing labour market informality,
poverty rates and inequality levels (IBGE 2019).
By the end of November, Brazil had surpassed 6 million Covid-19 cases and 170
thousand deaths according to official data reported by the Ministry of Health
(Ministério da Saúde 2020). This information, nevertheless, is underestimated:
delays in submitting data to the federal government by the state and local health
authorities are common. Also, testing capacity varies by regions, and it is likely
that there is underreporting of cases and deaths (Prado et al. 2020). This situation
poses more challenges for analysing the crisis and making decisions because it is
not possible to have a clear picture of the situation of the pandemic.
The efforts to contain the pandemic lacked coordination between federal, state
and municipal governments and there were innumerable policies across the coun-
try. While some mayors and governors enforced social distancing and lockdown
measures, drastically reducing people’s circulation, others were quite flexible.
Economic activity was also highly affected in the country: in the course of a
month (February-March 2020), industry production decreased by 9.1 per cent,
sales by 2.5 per cent and services output by 6.9 per cent (IBGE 2020). Brazil’s
Gross Domestic Product (GDP) fell by 4.5 per cent in the first quarter of 2020
and by 8.3 per cent in the second quarter of 2020 compared to the first and second
quarters of 2019 respectively. For the second half of the year, there has been a
fall in expectations of the central bank of Brazil by 4.2 per cent and a 3.0 per cent
plunge for each remaining quarter when compared to the same period in 2019
(IPEA 2020b). Furthermore, only in the most optimistic scenario set up by IPEA
(2020b), quarterly GDP would be back at the same level of the last quarter of
2019 by the end of 2021. As of 6 November 2020, the Brazilian GDP is expected
to contract 4.8 per cent in 2020 in relation to 2019 (Focus 2020).
Using the country’s poor economic performance as justification, the federal gov-
ernment did not comply with nor enforced social distancing and took a tacit stand
for herd immunity. The economic response also suffered delays and implementa-
tion problems, as argued in this chapter. Meanwhile, some mayors and governors
enacted a battle against the president, imposing social distancing measures in or-
der to save lives and prevent a breakdown of the health system under their re-
sponsibility by constitutional laws (Human Rights Watch 2020).
As per gender inequality, indicators before the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic
in the country already showed that Brazilian women were more vulnerable than
men in a few dimensions due to lower wages, more prevalence in the informal
labour market, a larger amount of time spent on domestic work and high incidence
of domestic violence (Alloatti and Oliveira 2021). Scholars argue that the en-
forcement of a conservative agenda in the country, in the last few years, has
strengthened these disparities (Oliveira et al. 2020).
The Covid-19 social developments in Brazil have so far been rather dramatic but
some of the most perverse effects are still to be felt. Brazil suffers from a lack of
appropriate resources, institutional coordination and good governance. Apart
from being globally recognised for its high levels of economic and social inequal-
ity (Oxfam 2017), the multidimensionality of poverty and structural racism in the
country composed a worrying epidemiological and demographic profile of the
population that escalates the negative prospects of the pandemic (Nassif-Pires,
Carvalho and Rawet 2021). This gruelling scenario explains why population
groups according to gender, race and ethnicity (the indigenous population) were
more severely affected by the pandemic (Alloatti and Oliveira 2021; Oliveira et
al., 2020).
3. Brazil and the (de)construction of gender mainstreaming
In order to better situate the international audience, this chapter presents Brazil’s
public policy gender equality agenda through the conceptual framework of gen-
der mainstreaming. The term was coined in 1995 as a global strategy to promote
equality between men and women in the Beijing Platform for Action, on the oc-
casion of the Fourth United Nations World Conference on Women (United Na-
tions 1995). Gender mainstreaming seeks to institutionalise equality, incorporat-
ing gender-sensitive practices and norms into the structures, processes and envi-
ronment of public policies.
Difficulties in the implementation of gender mainstreaming include lack of public
debate, weak social demand, insufficient social fabric and dependence on gov-
ernment’s adherence. Nilcea Freire, a Brazilian medical researcher and professor
who, in 2004, was in charge of the Federal Women Secretariat in Brazil, summa-
rised the difficulties of gender mainstreaming in Latin America in an interview
after an event entitled “Superando Obstáculos para a Transversalidade de Gênero
na América Latina e no Caribe1” (Freire 2010).
In Brazil, Freire stressed, there was a weak or non-existent positioning of equality
or even gender inequality on public institutional agendas and national develop-
ment plans. Second, there was a lack of commitment to the gender agenda by
decision-makers, with a low prevalence of gender-based human resources and in
the disciplines required by gender mainstreaming (Freire 2010). As a conse-
quence, public officials did not perceive the specificity of gender needs and in-
terests, which made it difficult to incorporate a gender perspective in government
programmes and actions. According to Freire (2010), Latin America has always
had many challenges to implement the policy agenda along the lines of gender
mainstreaming.
Despite the challenges, important policies were implemented during the last
twenty years in Brazil. In 2003, the Workers Party (PT) government founded the
Federal Women Secretariat, which became independent of the Human Rights
Ministry and had itself the status of a Ministry. From the policies developed by
the Federal Women Secretariat, the Maria da Penha Law (2006), aimed at tack-
ling domestic violence in Brazil, stands out. It focuses on establishing special
courts, stricter sentences and providing support to victims such as shelter and
psychological support. This legislation gained recognition as an advanced piece
of legislation in relation to tackling domestic and family violence against women
worldwide (UN Women 2011).
In 2005, the Federal Women Secretariat, in partnership with UN women,
launched the Pro-Gender and Race Equality Programme. Based on the under-
standing that women’s economic autonomy and inclusion in the formal labour
market are integral to gender justice, the programme aims at combating gender
and race discrimination and inequality practices in the work environment (Secre-
taria Especial de Políticas para as Mulheres 2016), as well as the means of pro-
moting gender and race equality with regard to formal labour relations and the
occupation of management positions (IPEA 2020a). The National Plan of Policies
for Women (PNPM), in its various editions (2004, 2008 and 2013), presents itself
as a milestone in the process of consolidating and maturing policies for women.
In 2013, the city of São Paulo, governed by Fernando Haddad (PT), created a
municipal women secretariat, with a very limited budget but a lot of effort from
its workers, who came mostly from the women’s movement.
However, in 2015, The Federal Women Secretariat was downgraded from its
ministry status and incorporated into the Ministry of Women, Racial Equality and
Human Rights. In December 2015, an impeachment process started against Dilma

1
Translated as overcoming obstacles to gender mainstreaming in Latin America and the
Caribbean.
Roussef, the first female to be elected as president of Brazil. In May 2016, Michel
Temer became the interim president and three days later his first measure was to
extinguish nine of Brazil’s 32 ministries, from those the Ministry of Women, Ra-
cial Equality and Human Rights. Their duties were assigned to the Ministry of
Justice, which officially became the Ministry of Justice and Citizenship. This ac-
tion made clear Temer’s commitment to a reduced role of the government, sig-
nalised his lack of interest in prioritising social justice and set the tone for the
years to come. After a long and controversial process, in August 2016, the Senate
voted to remove president Roussef from office and made Temer the 37th president
of Brazil, vouching for the neoliberal agenda to which he was committed. Such
commitment to austerity was then sealed in December 2016, when the Congress
approved a constitutional amendment that instituted a spending ceiling and froze
the public budget to its current level for 20 years.
In 2017, Temer reinstituted a Human Rights Ministry, which was then renamed
by Bolsonaro in 2019 as Ministry of Women, Family and Human Rights. Cur-
rently, the Federal Women Secretariat is under the Ministry of Women, Family
and Human Rights run by Damares Alves, a conservative evangelical pastor. At
the same time, São Paulo’s secretariat was also extinct when João Doria, a busi-
nessman from Partido da Social Democracia Brasileira (PSDB), a centre/right-
wing party, became mayor in 2017. In the last 20 years Brazil has seen the rise
and fall of an institutional apparatus for women. On the one hand, the years 2000
are an extraordinary example of what a committed public power can deliver. On
the other hand, the last five years, marked by the political obstacles of a divided
society, rooted in inequality, have shown how easily social advancements can be
undone.
The implementation of an austerity agenda in Brazil highly affected the budget
to public policies aimed at reducing gender inequalities. Between 2014 and 2018,
the federal budget for policies targeting violence against women fell by 83 per
cent, social inclusion via Programa Bolsa Família, the world’s largest cash trans-
fers programme, a highly gender-sensitive programme which highly benefits
women by increasing economic autonomy and self-esteem (Lavinas, Cobo and
Veiga 2012; Passos and Waltenberg 2016) dropped by 16 per cent, promotion of
human rights fell by 58 per cent and food and nutrition security fell by 97.7 per
cent (Teixeira 2018). This represented a deconstruction of most public policies
designed at reducing female vulnerability.
To make matters worse, the far-right politician Jair Bolsonaro, internationally
known for his misogynistic and homophobic remarks (Telesur 2019), was inau-
gurated as president on 1 January 2019. His government favours anti-gender pol-
icies, the naturalisation of male/female binary categories, a nationalist discourse
and the divisibility of human rights, that is, considering law breakers unworthy
of basic rights (Martins 2019). Moreover, the president and his ministries ensure
that domestic and foreign policies on gender issues are based on a view which
naturalizes gender roles. Proof of that are the disastrous stands of the country
representatives in various international organisations, which are an exception on
the country’s historical defence of human rights.
4. The unequal impacts of COVID-19 in Brazil by gender
Covid-19 impacts men and women differently. To analyse how, we need to ob-
serve pre-existing inequalities as well as changes pursuant to factors and variables
such as income, labour force status, labour market segmentation and productive
and reproductive labour conciliation.
Women’s average wage is lower than men’s and there is a high prevalence of
women in precarious occupations (Gibb 2017). Low educational attainment
groups display higher incidence of chronic diseases while low income and racial-
ised populations present higher social risk factors and are, therefore, the most
vulnerable in relation to Covid-19 in Brazil (Nassif-Pires, Carvalho and Rawet
2020). Also, the unemployment rate was already higher among women: in the
last quarter of 2019, the unemployment rate for men in Brazil was 9.2 per cent
and 13.1 per cent for women (IBGE 2020). Self-employed workers such as clean-
ers, maids, women who produce home goods or crafts to sell, beauty products
resellers are in a very fragile situation, have lower and many times intermittent
income. Therefore, the consequences of social distancing, imposed in the wake
of the coronavirus pandemic, impact these workers directly as their work and in-
come are not guaranteed. Around 39 per cent employers who hired cleaning ser-
vices in their home have dismissed and stopped paying domestic workers (Agên-
cia Brasil 2020). Thus, the economic effects of the corona crisis will be even more
overwhelming for women. Women concentrate on the loss of formal occupation
in Brazil (65.6 per cent occupations were lost between March and September
2020), although they represented, previously, a minority of workers in the formal
sector (Fernandes 2020). Many women are going into economic inactivity alto-
gether, also due to the closure of schools, day care centres and other institutions
which assist in social reproduction. These dynamics might linger for a longer pe-
riod of time, risking further amplifying gender inequalities and setting back im-
provements in gender equality.
Regarding labour market segmentation, men are the majority in metallurgical,
chemical, construction and computer sectors. Although they slightly outnumber
women employed in the supermarket business, female workers have the majority
as supermarket cashiers. Women are a vast majority in cleaning and conservation
as well as paid domestic workers (Gibb 2017). Hence, these women are very ex-
posed to coronavirus. A presidential decree classifies domestic workers as essen-
tial workers, therefore, they are more prone to being pressurised to work even
during lockdown.
In the case of the health sector, Oliveira (2015) reported that in 2011, 87 per cent
nurses were women. Among the physicians, usually recognised by their high av-
erage wage rate, women represented only 41 per cent. In 2017, 34,051 care work-
ers were employed to look after the elderly in Brazil and 85 per cent of these
workers were women. During the Covid-19 pandemic, they are under extreme
vulnerability because no specific legislation protects their work, and some are
facing threats from employers, who forbid them from going back home (Bruno
2020). Presently, health and care workers are at increased risk. Supermarket cash-
iers are at high risk of contamination as they are the entry and exit point at an
essential service, putting women on the front line.
Apart from a large proportion of the female workforce being exposed directly to
the coronavirus, social isolation disrupts work routines, which had an impact on
reproductive work. Already before the pandemic, women had a double burden
workload: according to Jesus (2018), women are responsible for 85 per cent of
all reproductive work in Brazil. Jesus’ estimates show gender imbalances in the
intergenerational transfer of unpaid domestic work: women spend their entire
adult lives as net transferers of domestic work, producing more domestic work
within the household than they consume; while men are net consumers of domes-
tic work, always consuming more than they produce. In addition, Jesus (2018)
finds that girls, starting from an early age, are on average more responsible for
house chores than boys. During the pandemic, this may have an unequal impact
on their studies and their future.
Due to the required confinement to stop Covid-19, housework increases signifi-
cantly. Women's lives and their productive jobs are highly affected, as the sepa-
ration between productive and reproductive work has no rigid boundaries for
women in home-office. That is not the case for men as they often indicate the
very opposite (Gibb 2017).
With the restriction of social services offered by the state and by the market, the
difficulties related to access groceries and the need for impeccable hygiene of
environments and clothing have a huge impact in the total number of hours nec-
essary to fulfil all chores. Therefore, the need to accommodate everything in a
home-office system that includes care for children 24 hours a day without school,
caring for the elderly and the sick, cooking all meals at home, makes productive
and reproductive labour reconciliation incredibly challenging (Fares, Oliveira
and Rolim 2021).
Women's unpaid work of care often represents a hidden subsidy to government
programmes, as austerity policies tend to transfer their costs to the unpaid econ-
omy (Oliveira et al. 2020). Therefore, any analysis of socioeconomic policies
must take into account the differences between the unpaid and the paid economy,
in addition to the transferring costs between them. Public spending cuts into the
Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
 XVI
MY GREAT SORROW

One evening when we cats had had our usual frolic in the library and
bedtime was drawing near, I went to the door, as usual, and gave
mistress the look which told her that I wanted to go out. She opened
the door in the kindest manner, and as it was a beautiful moonlight
night I mounted the fence and went over to Jack’s house, for I had
something very important to tell him. I had heard Guy tell mistress
that very evening not to let us stay out much evenings, because he
had been told that it was the fashion in schools and colleges to
dissect cats, so they can see how we are put together. He said that
one of the boys had told him that they just go out nights and get any
cats they can catch, or that will come to them; and that the majority
of cats gathered up in this way are somebody’s pets because they
are so much more tame than others, and more easily caught.
When I told this to Jack, it made him very indignant. “The idea of
such an outrage perpetrated on us poor unsuspecting cats,” said he.
“Where is the Humane Agent? Why don’t he arrest the thieves?”
I told Jack that from what I had heard, one might steal all the cats in
Christendom, except the highly favored Angoras and Persians, and
he could not be arrested, because the law does not protect cats.
When Jack heard this he could hardly contain himself for anger, and
he invited me to go over to his yard and sit on the bench with him,
where we could talk the matter over quietly. But just then his
mistress called him, and being a very obedient cat, he went right into
the house. I went over toward my poplar tree, and as I neared my
house I heard my mistress calling me also. But it was such a
pleasant evening, the moonlight was so beautiful and the stars
shone so brightly, I really could not bear the thought of going in.
Even the whetting of the carving knife did not tempt me, and I did not
heed my dear mistress’ call. It seems as though I could hear even
now that tender voice falling softly on the night air: “Come, Meow,
come,” before she finally closed the door. How dearly I paid for my
disobedience, I will tell you.
After staying up in the poplar tree awhile, I concluded to go in, but
the doors were all shut, and the house was dark. I called at the
kitchen door, but nobody heard me, so I crawled into a soap box in
which I found an old blanket, put there for me, no doubt, by my
thoughtful mistress. But for some reason or other I could not get that
dreadful dissecting story off my mind, and while I sat in my box
thinking about it, I saw an old black cat,—not Jack—come along on
the fence ledge and descend into my yard. I jumped up immediately
and asked him what business he had prowling around in my yard at
that time of night.
“I am looking for you,” said he, “and I want you to go with me to visit
a friend down by the railroad.”
On the whole the cat had quite a distinguished appearance, and I
must say I felt somewhat flattered by his attention. Besides that, he
was so polite and kind, and I so lonely. Well, to make a long story
short, I accepted his invitation.
My companion said we must hurry, as it was a long distance, so we
started on our journey at once. We walked to the end of Poplar
Avenue, farther than I had walked before in all my life; then we
crossed several railroad tracks, and for a short distance we went on
the top of a fence inclosing a beautiful yard with trees and shrubs
and flowers. Quite a distance from the fence stood a large white
mansion, and there my companion alighted and bade me follow him.
“Here is where my friend lives,” said he, “and his name is Cæsar
Augustus Napoleon, so you can imagine he is no ordinary cat.”
I felt very proud to think I should soon meet such a distinguished cat,
but we had not gone many steps when a very loud bark frightened
me, and I saw an enormous bulldog come toward us. I retraced my
steps to the fence, and ran away as fast as I could. But I must have
gone the wrong way, for I could not find the railroad tracks which we
had crossed.
When I had gone far enough to be out of the dog’s reach, I rested for
a few minutes, and bethought me what to do. A short distance from
the fence was another beautiful mansion, and it looked so inviting in
the clear moonlight, I went over on the porch and sat upon the door-
mat. There was no dog around to frighten me, so I rested quietly,
and was just about ready to doze off into a nap when my black
companion came along, limping on three legs, his head bleeding,
and one of his eyes completely closed. He had traced me to the
porch, and came up and sat down beside me, but said nothing—
goodness me, what could he say?—and as I was very tired, I soon
fell asleep. When I awoke he had gone, and I felt I was very
fortunate to be rid of him, for was he not the cause of all my trouble?
Sad and strange thoughts passed through my mind on that unhappy
morning, and I could only hope that the “Kind Providence” that I had
so often heard mistress tell about, would be good enough to help
even a poor little homeless cat like me.
I stayed on the porch all night, lonely, and shivering with cold. I, who
had always been used to sleeping on a nice soft pad or cushion
even in the house, there on that cold night had to sleep outdoors on
a straw mat. But we must expect sorrow and shame for
disobedience. After all my greatest sorrow was caused by the
thought of how dreadfully my dear mistress would feel in the morning
at not finding me.
If only the dear children who read this story would take warning from
my sad experience, and never disobey their parents, I could feel that
some good had come out of my great sorrow.
 XVII
THE KIND PROVIDENCE

When it was morning, a man came out of the stable door back of the
mansion and began sweeping the walks. I started to go away when
he came near me, but he called to me in such a kind way, I lingered,
though half afraid, for a few moments.
Instead of sweeping the porch where I was sitting, he passed by,
only sweeping the steps, talking gently to me as he went along. I
could tell by the tone of his voice that he was a kind-hearted man,
and when he returned, I followed him into the stable.
There I saw four beautiful horses, each in a clean large stall, and
they all looked so happy and self-respecting. One was much darker
than the others, and I wondered whether possibly he was the “Black
Beauty” I had heard so much about. The man then began to brush
and comb the horses, talking to them, and whistling and singing part
of the time. When he had finished, he gave them their breakfast of
oats and hay. During all this time I sat contentedly in a corner under
the manger, quite forgetful of the unhappy night I had passed.
After a while a boy, about Guy’s age and with just such blond, bushy
hair, came into the stable, followed by an enormous white and yellow
St. Bernard. I was terribly frightened when I saw the dog, but I didn’t
let him know it; it isn’t a cat’s way, you know. In a jiffy my back went
up, and my tail took on the shape of a jug handle. But the dog didn’t
pay a bit of attention to me. He lay down calmly and quietly, and in
such a dignified manner. I said to myself “here is a real gentleman.”
Gradually I moved a little closer to him, and lay down also. The boy
then came over to where I was and said: “Why, kitty, what is your
name?”
I said “Meow.”
But he evidently did not understand me, for after a while he said,
“Come, Tommie, and see my sister,” and he took me up in his arms
and carried me into the house.
There I found a beautiful young lady by the name of Miss Dorothy.
She had laughing blue eyes and long golden hair, which hung down
her back in a graceful braid, tied at the end with a blue ribbon. There
was also Mr. Banks her father, and Miss Beggs, the housekeeper.
Arthur—that’s the boy’s name—set me down by the side of his sister,
and told her where he had found me.
I am very thankful to the kind Providence that put it into his heart to
love animals and to show kindness to a poor little homeless cat like
me.
Miss Dorothy took me to the bathroom, where she sponged off my
coat and wiped it dry with a towel. Then she gave me a good
combing, and tied a fresh ribbon around my neck, for the one that I
had on was all soiled and ragged. She did not like the name Tommie,
so she called me Tootsie, a name which I trust I never dishonored,
during the short time I bore it. Miss Dorothy also put a soft silken
cushion at the foot of her bed, and that was my “corner” during all
the time I stayed with her.
But my new ribbon came very near causing me serious trouble. Miss
Dorothy had tied it so loosely that it was quite uncomfortable. I tried
to slip it over my head, and in so doing my lower jaw became caught
in it, and I was unable to close my mouth. The worst of it all was, my
jaw was caught in such a way that I could not make an outcry or give
any alarm. I just tumbled over and over myself in my frantic effort to
get the troublesome thing off, and Miss Dorothy looked on, evidently
thinking I was playing. Finally I just sank down, exhausted, and then
she noticed my trouble, and with the scissors quickly cut the ribbon.
After that she tied it more carefully.
I happened to be in the dining-room one day when they were
arranging the dinner-table, and as four chairs were placed when
there were but three persons to sit down, I concluded that the fourth
was for me; so I jumped up next to Miss Dorothy. She seemed very
much pleased, and welcomed me with a pat on my back; but Mr.
Banks frowned, and said I must not be allowed such liberties. At this
Miss Beggs offered to take me out of the room, but Miss Dorothy
begged so hard for me to be allowed to stay, Mr. Banks finally
consented, saying that if I continued to behave as well as I had so
far, he would not object.
“She is no common cat,” said Arthur; “she acts as if she were
accustomed to sitting at the table.”
Miss Dorothy gave me a loving look and said, “You are a treasure,
Toots.”
Before the meal was quite finished, “Dr. Fogg” was announced, and
Miss Dorothy arose from the table saying that she was expecting him
for dinner.
Miss Beggs then took me up-stairs, but after dinner I went down to
the library, and spent a very pleasant evening with Dr. Fogg and
Miss Dorothy.
I had given myself such a vigorous scrubbing while up-stairs that my
fur was stuck together in little tufts all over my body; but Miss
Dorothy picked me up and smoothed it all out, and put a pretty fresh
ribbon around my neck.
Then Dr. Fogg took me for a while, and after he had looked me all
over he said I was a good healthy cat.
“How can you tell?” said Miss Dorothy.
“Because her nostrils are cold and moist,” was the reply. “A sick or
famished cat has dry, hot nostrils. This cat also has many good
points,” added the doctor: “short nose, short thick tail, short round
ears and soft silken fur.”
“You are a lover of cats, I take it, or you would not be so well versed
in cat-lore,” said Miss Dorothy, with evident pleasure.
“You would think so if you could see my Remus,” replied the doctor,
the while gently stroking my back. “I wouldn’t part with him for a
fortune. Better than any medicine to a restless overworked mind is a
sleek healthy cat for a bed-fellow, for the electricity with which his fur
is charged will induce sleep when all other means fail.”
“How perfectly wonderful,” said Miss Dorothy. “I must get one for
papa. Where did you get Remus?”
“Remus,” said the doctor, “was one of a pair of black kittens that
belonged to old Black Betty at the college. Betty had the mange
several times, but the students always cured her by rubbing her
sores with a mixture of lard and sulphur, which she would
immediately lick off. During her last attack, however, she seemed to
have a presentiment that her hour had come. One morning, while my
father was lecturing to the students, Betty brought in one of her
kittens, laid it at his feet, looked up into his face and mewed. Then
she went and fetched the other, and repeated the same action, after
which she returned to her basket, and ten minutes later the janitor
found her dead. Father regarded those kittens as a sacred trust, and
insisted that both be kept in our house; so sister appropriated one,
and I the other; and this is how I came into possession of Remus.”
When the doctor began to talk about the things that they did at the
college, I expected to hear quite a different story. I am glad now to
know that they do some other things for cats in colleges besides
dissecting them.
“By the way,” said Miss Dorothy, “I read in to-day’s paper that in
some place where diphtheria is raging, all the cats have been killed
because it is supposed that they spread the disease. And in another
place where the smallpox has broken out, the health officer proposes
that it is necessary to kill off all the stray and homeless cats and
dogs before the disease can be stamped out. What do you think of
that?”
“Nonsense,” said the doctor. “Everything that lives, from a fly to an
elephant, is liable to carry germs, and one of the most prolific
conductors of germs is the rat; so you see that even the persecuted
alley cat has a reason for her existence. Indeed, the congested
districts of a large city would be uninhabitable, and we would see the
scenes of the famous mouse tower enacted over again, were it not
for the services of this much maligned and misunderstood creature.”
“It seems to me,” said Miss Dorothy, “if there were anything in this
theory about cats and dogs spreading smallpox, for instance, they
would themselves be subject to the disease. But whoever heard of a
cat or dog dying of smallpox, or even being afflicted with it?”
“I am sure I never did,” replied the doctor.
As for me, the things to which I had been listening filled me with
astonishment and indignation, and I retired to my corner on Miss
Dorothy’s bed to think matters over. Would that there were more
such kind-hearted people to speak for the defenseless as Miss
Dorothy and the doctor.
But I must return to my story. Bernie, the dog, was a noble, dignified
animal, and not the least bit jealous of the attention that was being
paid to me. Often when I was out in the yard, he would invite me to
lie beside him in the sunshine, and when I did so he would put his
head down close to mine and look into my eyes, just as if he wanted
to tell me something real nice. His coat was always clean and fluffy,
because he had a bath regularly once a week, and his “corner” was
in the rear hall, where he had a white fur rug for his resting-place.
But he spent most of his time outside with Arthur and the coachman.
During the first day or two at Miss Dorothy’s I really suffered hunger,
although I was in the midst of plenty, for the cook never thought of
giving me a morsel of anything. She would throw the nicest tidbits of
meat and fish that came from the table right into the garbage can,
and let me hunt for food the best way I could. Of course, I was not
used to eating out of garbage cans, and really, I’d starve rather than
do such a vulgar thing. After a few days of such scanty fare as I
could get by catching flies and grasshoppers, I jumped up on the
pantry table one morning to see if I couldn’t find something more
substantial, and what should I see there but a great big fish. I
grabbed him by the tail and jumped down, but the fish got to the floor
before I did. I then took hold of him and pulled him over to the cellar
door, and was just starting down the stairs to take him to a quiet
place, where I could have my feast undisturbed, when the cook
came in.
“Faith an’ I knowed all the time ye was a thief,” said she, jerking my
treasure away from me; and then she called Miss Dorothy in to see
what her new pet was up to. Miss Dorothy took me up in her arms,
but did not say one unpleasant word to me. She knew that no
respectable cat would steal, unless actually driven to it. She asked
the cook when I was last fed, and upon learning that no one had paid
any attention to me in the way of food, she told Miss Beggs to see
that I was properly cared for at every meal thereafter, and after that I
fared better. Miss Beggs would gather up the choicest little remnants
of meat or chicken or fish on the plates, and mix them with a little
mashed potato or rice in such a way that it made the daintiest meal
for me.
So you see the kind Providence did take care of me, even though I
am only a cat.
 XVIII
A WELCOME VISITOR

Miss Dorothy had many lovely neighbors, but the one I liked best
of all was Mrs. Stevens. One day when the two ladies were visiting, I
happened to be in the room, and Miss Dorothy told Mrs. Stevens
how I had come to her a homeless little stranger. Mrs. Stevens said
that her children had been wanting a little kitty for a long time, but
that she had never allowed them to have one till Mrs. Cotton
persuaded her to do so.
When I heard the name of Mrs. Cotton, I was so overjoyed, I jumped
on the floor and turned several somersaults, and Mrs. Stevens
laughed heartily at my antics.
One day while napping on my cushion, I was awakened by a familiar
voice in Miss Dorothy’s room. It was a lady, and she asked Miss
Dorothy if she could take charge of the Band of Mercy for a while, as
Miss Wallace the leader, had been called away.
Of course having heard the story of Beautiful Joe, I know all about
the Band of Mercy. It is a place where little boys and girls sing and
speak lovely pieces. Here is one I heard Guy read to his mother from
“Dumb Animals:”

Three little kittens, so downy and soft,

Were cuddled up by the fire,
And two little children were sleeping aloft,
As cozy as heart could desire;
Dreaming of something ever so nice,
Dolls and sugar-plums, rats and mice.

The night wore on, and the mistress said,

“I’m sleepy, I must confess,
 And as kitties and babies are safe in bed,
I’ll go to bed too, I guess.”
She went up-stairs, just a story higher,
While the kittens slept by the kitchen fire.

“What noise can that be?” the mistress said.

“Meow! meow!” “I’m afraid
A poor kitty-cat’s fallen out of bed!
The nice little nest I made!”
“Meow! meow!” “Dear me! dear me!
I wonder what can the matter be!”

The mistress paused on an upper stair,

For, what did she see below?
But three little kittens, with frightened air,
Standing up in a row!
With six little paws on the step above,
And no mother cat to caress or love!

Through the kitchen door came a cloud of smoke!

The mistress, in great alarm,
To a sense of danger straightway awoke:
Her babies might come to harm.
On the kitchen hearth, to her great amaze,
Was a basket of shavings beginning to blaze.

The three little kittens were hugged and kissed,

And promised many a mouse;
While their names were put upon honor’s list,
For hadn’t they saved a house?
And two little children were gathered tight
To their mother’s heart ere she slept that night.

The mention of the Band of Mercy brought to my mind little Willie

Cotton, and instantly it dawned upon me that the strange lady was
Willie’s mother. Mrs. Cotton carried a bunch of delicious sweet
violets, as usual.
“I will be most happy to do anything I can for Miss Wallace,” said
Miss Dorothy, “and if you think I am able to lead the Band, it will give
me great pleasure to do so.”
While Miss Dorothy was speaking I got up from my cushion, and
jumped into her lap, but Mrs. Cotton did not seem to notice me at all;
she was so interested in the Band of Mercy. Then, although I knew it
was very rude to do so, I jumped over on Mrs. Cotton’s lap. I felt that
I must in some way attract her attention. Mrs. Cotton petted me a
little, so I climbed up to her face and kissed her nose. At this Mrs.
Cotton seemed to take alarm. Perhaps she thought I was on the way
up to her hat again; but I wasn’t, for the birdies had all flown away.
“What an affectionate little creature,” said she, holding me firmly in
her lap. “Where did you get this cat?”
“She came to us a couple of weeks ago,” said Miss Dorothy, “and
made herself so thoroughly agreeable that I have had her as my
constant companion ever since.”
Mrs. Cotton looked at me more closely and said, “She looks like a
cat that my neighbor, Mrs. Paxton has lost, and she has been very
unhappy over it; only a few days ago she said she still hoped to find
her again.”
Miss Dorothy looked very sad. “Is there any way by which you could
prove that this is Mrs. Paxton’s cat?” said she, “for, if she is, I want to
return her.”
Mrs. Cotton put her hand to her forehead evidently trying to recall my
name, when I cried out “meow.”
“Oh, ‘Meow’! that was the cat’s name. Meow! Meow!”
At the sound of my name I could hardly contain myself. I kissed Mrs.
Cotton’s cheek many times, and then, seeing Miss Dorothy looked
sad, I went over and kissed her too.
“I believe you are right,” said Miss Dorothy, “and if Tootsie belongs to
Mrs. Paxton, she shall have her back. I named her after Miss
Willard’s cat because she seemed so well-bred and so dignified.”
“Mrs. Paxton will be delighted to see you,” said Mrs. Cotton, “for I
feel quite sure that this is her cat.”
“We shall all be very sorry to give her up,” said Miss Dorothy, as she
accompanied Mrs. Cotton to the door.
At the dinner-table Miss Dorothy told her father and Arthur what Mrs.
Cotton had told her.
“There is only one thing to do, daughter,” said Mr. Banks.
“Yes,” said Miss Dorothy, “I am going to take her over to-day.”
Then I knew that that would be my last day at Miss Dorothy’s, and
wishing to give my dear mistress all the pleasure I could, I
immediately set to washing myself and smoothing my fur.
To be sure I felt sad to leave my new friends who had been so very
kind to me, still I was overjoyed thinking of the happiness it would
give my mistress to find me again.
 XIX
A JOYFUL REUNION

Soon after dinner that same day the carriage drove up to the side
entrance, and Miss Dorothy wrapped me in a small blanket and took
me away with her.
She held me on her lap all the way and said loving words, telling me
how she would miss me if I belonged to the other lady. My head was
out of the blanket so I could see where we were going.
After a short drive on a beautiful avenue we turned down a quiet side
street, and there, to my great delight, I saw the long row of poplar
trees so dear to me. They seemed like so many old friends, standing
there to welcome me home. Another familiar sight was Eddie riding
his velocipede, and when next I saw Jack seated on his window-sill, I
knew that we must be getting close to Number 127.
Presently the carriage stopped and Miss Dorothy alighted, leaving
me on the seat in care of the good, kind coachman. In a few
minutes, which seemed hours to me, Miss Dorothy returned to fetch
me into the house. My dear mistress met me at the door, and the
moment she saw me she said, “Meow, why did you leave me?” at
the same time taking me out of Miss Dorothy’s arms. I climbed up to
her face and covered her cheeks with kisses.
Poor Miss Dorothy watched me very closely, but after such a
greeting she could have no doubt that I was the lost Meow.
“I am sorry to take her from you,” said mistress, “for you must have
become attached to her if you have had her all this time.”
“Yes,” said Miss Dorothy, “she has been a most agreeable
companion; I shall miss her sorely.”
Then the ladies chatted for a few minutes, Miss Dorothy telling
mistress how I was found by her coachman, and mistress telling her
when I disappeared; and as the two dates were only one day apart,
both rejoiced that I had been fortunate enough to find a new home
so soon.
“I will see that you get one in her place,” said mistress, trying to
console poor Miss Dorothy, as she arose to go; and I went on the
window-sill to see the carriage roll away.
The next thing I did was to look around for my companions, Budge
and Toddy. On entering the library I saw upon the table a vase of
beautiful flowers, and Budge and Toddy up there walking around the
vase, admiring the flowers, and smelling them. I went up to them but
they did not seem to remember me, and acted rather uppish—I
mean with their backs. But after a while they recognized me as their
former playmate, and their backs went down. Of course they wanted
to know all about my absence, and they told me of all the searching
that had been done, and how mistress would go out in the yard day
after day and call for me.
“Even Dennis was hunting for you all over the neighborhood,” said
Toddy.
“And Jack came over every day,” said Budge, “to inquire whether
you had returned.”
When it got to be time for the children to come from school, I went to
the window to watch for Guy. But after all the children had passed by,
and he did not come, I went to his room.
There I found a strange lady dressed in blue, and wearing a white
cap and apron, and somebody was lying in Guy’s bed. I jumped up
on the bed, as I had often done, and saw that it was Guy; but he
looked so pale and thin, and to my great surprise, he took no notice
of me. The house was very still, and everybody spoke in a whisper; I
could not understand what it all meant.
During the afternoon a very tall gentleman called, with a hand bag.
They called him “Doctor.” I heard him talk to the strange lady about
“temperature” and “quinine” and “hot compress” and other things that
I had never heard of before.
At supper-time Dennis came in and I went up to him and looked into
his eyes. He put his nose down close to mine and gave a soft low
growl; perhaps he was scolding me for having stayed away so long.
Early the next morning I scampered over to Jack’s house. I found
him seated on the ledge of the fence, intently watching the ash box,
but as soon as he saw me he came to meet me.
“Where have you been?” said he, joyfully, as he rubbed his side up
against me in the most friendly fashion. “I never expected to see you
again, for I was afraid some of those dreadful college boys had got
hold of you.”
At this moment Jack’s mistress came out into the yard, and when
she saw me she too seemed delighted, and to fitly celebrate my
return, she brought out the song box and made it play “The Cat
Came Back.”
Of course, I had to give Jack an account of how I happened to
disappear so suddenly, and when I told him about my black
companion and that woeful night he expressed great surprise.
“That explains Nig’s absence,” said he. “His people, the Mortons,
have missed him for several weeks. I don’t blame him for leaving,
because they made him stay outdoors on the coldest nights; and
they gave him his food in an old tin pan big enough to water a horse
with; and his usual fare was plain boiled potatoes, or oat meal
mush.”
I told Jack the condition Nig was in when I last saw him, but he said
that was nothing unusual for Nig, and that he had often seen him
with both eyes closed after a night’s outing.
It was many weeks before Guy went to school again, and as soon as
he was able to be up, the nurse permitted me to stay in his room all
the time; so I spent many pleasant days with him. He told me about
a big Maltese cat that came to the house just before he was taken ill,
and how they took her in and fed her as long as she stayed, because
they wanted to do by her as they hoped some one was doing by me.
I hope the kind Providence helped her to find her home again.
As soon as Guy was strong enough, the nurse taught him how to
knit, and he was trying to make a pair of slippers to surprise his
mother on her birthday. Oh! the fun I used to have playing with that
ball of yarn. Often when it was wound around me, Guy would have to
straighten it out before he could go on with his knitting. But once it
came near costing me my life. The nurse was out on an errand at the
time and Guy had dozed off to sleep, so I concluded to go down-
stairs and get a little fresh air. But when I had gone half-way down
the stairs something began pulling me back. Harder and harder I
jerked, and harder and harder it pulled, till it finally broke and I got
away. The yarn was wound around my neck so many times, it
seemed like a rope, and I was gasping for breath at the foot of the
stairs, when the nurse came in. She quickly cut it with the scissors,
or I fear I should never have lived to tell the story of my happy home-
coming.
 XX
A NEW HOME

As soon as Guy was well again, he and mistress began to pack

boxes and trunks, as if getting ready for another journey; and sure
enough, one pleasant day as I sat on the window-sill, a big moving
van drove up in front of our house.
As soon as mistress saw it she took us cats up to the attic, where we
stayed the rest of the day. We looked out of the window, and saw
one thing after another carried out of the house, and really we
wondered with some misgivings as to what was happening to our
dear home; even our basket had been put into the wagon. As we sat
thinking these sad thoughts, and wondering what was going to be
done with us, Guy came in with a big covered willow basket. He
placed us inside of it, closed the cover, fastened it, and took us
down-stairs and handed us to the driver. Then he too mounted the
wagon, seating himself in front with the driver. I was so glad to see
him go with us, and he kept our basket close by his side so that I
could see him through the cracks in the basket, and could hear his
voice. The rumbling of the wheels was not very pleasant to listen to,
and Budge and Toddy were terribly frightened; you see they had
never traveled, as I had, and didn’t know what it all meant.
But our journey was very short. We stopped in front of a little white
house with vine-covered verandas, where Guy jumped down and
took us in, and mistress was there to welcome us. She took us at
once up to the attic, and when we emerged from the basket, what
should we find but our pads spread out in the sun with a saucer of
milk by the side of them. There we stayed until morning, but we did
not sleep very much; why? There were too many cozy nooks and
corners to explore, and besides that, Toddy said he saw a mouse
poke her head above a little hole, and we all watched the hole with
him. But I am half afraid the mouse must have seen us, for she took
care not to return.
In the morning Guy called us down-stairs and showed us all around
the premises, and we were delighted to find such a large green yard
with shrubs and trees. In front of the house were three big maples,
where we could climb up in case of danger from big dogs.
When we entered the house, we found our dear basket and cushions
in a cozy corner of the library, and it just seemed as though 127
Poplar Avenue had been carried down bodily in the moving van. Off
mistress’ room was a delightful veranda and it was just the nicest
place for us cats, because it used to make the dogs so furious to see
us where they could not chase us. Mistress put one of our pads on
the veranda, and in very warm weather we stayed out there all night.
Budge used to go to sleep on the railing, and it was a common thing
to hear his cry down below in the early morning. But the tumble
didn’t seem to do him any harm.
On the very next day after we had moved, I was sitting on the
window-sill in Guy’s room, looking down into the yard. On top of the
board fence separating our yard from our neighbor’s was a big
yellow cat, and below on the lawn stood a small white and yellow
dog whom they called “Jip.”
“Those are some of our new neighbors,” said mistress, “and we will
see if we can get on good terms with them.”
With that she raised the window, and threw out some raw beef. The
cat jumped off the fence, and she and the dog both ran for the meat.
Mistress threw down several more pieces, and when it ceased to
come dropping down, both looked up very wistfully.
About this time another cat appeared, a weak, sickly little creature,
looking timorous, and very unhappy. I felt sure that mistress’ heart
would be touched at sight of her. The cat and dog had eaten all the
meat, so mistress gave some to Guy to take to the little kitty. But she
was afraid of him and would not come near, although she seemed
very hungry. So Guy took a piece of the meat and threw it to the kitty,
at a little distance, and she devoured it most greedily. Then he threw
another piece not quite so far, and she came and got that. By
throwing each piece a shorter distance, the kitty at last came close
enough to Guy to take it out of his hand.
While Guy was feeding the kitty he inquired of a little boy in the next
yard if he knew to whom the dog and cats belonged.
“The yellow ones belong to us,” said the boy, “and the little kitty has
no home at all; she belonged to the people that moved away.”