This section is for anyone who is interested in
knowing the basics about home-based work. We are sure that after
reading these quick questions and answers, you will have a better
understanding of why HomeNets exist and how much there is to do
for the home-based workforce particularly in developing countries.
What is home-based work?
Homebased work or homework is done in or around
the home for an income. It is not household work done for the family
without payment, or domestic work such as cleaning or childcare
done for an employer in their house.
Homebased work can range from labor-intensive manual
or machine tasks (such as sorting, cleaning, packaging, labelling,
coil winding and soldering) to the production of electronic equipment
and in the service sector (activities such as filling envelopes,
mailing, typing, word and data processing, invoicing, editing, and
translating) to garment and textile industries, the leather industry,
artificial flower making, handicraft, pottery and weaving.
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What are the
different types of home-based worker?
Basically, there are two principal types: the piece-rate
worker who works for an employer or intermediary and the own-account
worker who does her or his own marketing.
The piece-rate worker. She gets
her raw materials from a trader, contractor, employer, or firm,
makes them into finished goods at home, and delivers them to the
same person. Rarely does she have any direct contact with the marketplace
for the goods she makes. However, often the raw materials she receives
are not sufficient, or certain necessary components are not provided,
so she has to buy these items herself. While some employers or contractors
loan equipment to their piece-rate workers, most have to provide
their own tools. As such, the cost of equipment, maintenance, and
infrastructure, such as electricity, can cut deeply into the workers'
earnings.
Some workers are engaged by international chains
of production (garments, footwear, electronics, plastic footballs)
while others work for national or local markets (garments, bidi,
agarbatti, textiles). Certain forms of craft-work, while apparently
traditional, are now done on a subcontracted basis (weaving, basket
work). This trend is also growing in non manufacturing areas such
as agri processing (cashew nut, cotton, horticulture, floriculture
and animal husbandry).
The own-account worker. She is
generally in direct contact with the market, buying her own raw
material and selling her own finished goods. However, in terms of
earnings and working conditions, she is not much better off than
her piece-rated sisters. Own-account workers face competition from
larger, more powerful businesses and rarely have access to credit,
except at exorbitant rates of interest. Thus, they have to buy raw
materials in small quantities, making them more expensive, and are
rarely able to sell their goods themselves directly in the markets.
As a result, they too are dependent on agents, contractors, and
other middlemen.
Although there is a theoretical difference between
a piece-rated worker, who is dependent on a specific employer/contractor,
and an own account worker who is supposedly independent, in practice
this distinction is blurred. For example, weavers in Thailand are
own-account workers in that they buy their own yarn and sell their
cloth in the market. To do this, however, they generally have to
buy their material on credit from the same merchants to whom they
eventually sell their finished goods, and at prices determined by
those merchants. So, although technically the producer is an own-account
worker, she has no direct access to the best markets and has limited
bargaining power. In terms of earning and working conditions, she
is not much better off than the piece-rate worker.
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What’s the
importance of homebased work?
This is the most vital question.
Homebased work spans continents and centuries.
Some of the oldest forms of work, such as weaving and spinning,
were done at home. Today, some of the latest forms of work connected
with computer technology and modern telecommunications are increasingly
taking place in homebased work sites.
Homebased work is, in fact, a vital and growing
part of economic modernization, linked to the globalization of industry
and the never-ending search for cheaper sources of labour and more
efficient means of production.
As governments seek to attract industrial investment,
the availability of low-cost labour and labour stability is a valuable
bargaining commodity. In today's international marketplace, it is
not uncommon for a single garment or electronic device to be a compilation
of the efforts of workers over two or three continents, most of
whom are not even aware of each other's existence.
Quick changes in fashion and demands from retailers
for immediate responses have led to the need to produce high-fashion
garments rapidly, customized to specific markets. Such uncertainties
in demand have resulted in a highly competitive local manufacturing
industry which has to rely on subcontracting orders out to small
producers rather than undertaking production in large scale factories
halfway around the world.
It is well-known fact that the Japanese model of
"just in time (JIT)" production (organized at the last
minute) was based on the existence of thousands of small sub-contractors
who were able to draw upon the skills of women working at home.
While homebased work in both developing and developed
countries may be considered "informal" by most economists,
in the sense that workers are outside the protection of the law
and their work is often not valued appropriately, most of the products
they produce are sold by large, mainstream retailers.
The same pattern that is true for clothing can
also be found in the automobile industry, all types of electronics
production and assembly, and many other modern industries.
In Thailand, for example, as wages in the cities
have risen, Thai products have become expensive as compared to their
competitors in other less developed Asian countries. Local industries
are relocating to rural areas where small workshops can be set up
less expensively. There is a growing need for rural families to
develop new ways to earn more income. New farming technology requires
cash to purchase inputs, while the growing influence of the mass
media brings with it an increased demand for consumer goods.
So, homebased work in all of its diverse forms
cannot be viewed as an artifact of traditional economies. Rather,
such work appears to be growing in both developing rural and urban
economies. Further, the income that homework produces is no longer
supplementary but has become increasingly vital to families and
nations alike.
The women who weave in Thailand, the handicraft
makers in the Philippines, the homebased workers assembling electronic
devices in Malaysia and the Indonesian women machine-stitching garments
at home are all inextricably linked within the global marketplace.
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Who
are the homeworkers?
The majority of homeworkers are women, who take
up this form of employment as a way of earning an income to support
themselves and their families. Homework is seen as a way of combining
the unpaid work of family care, with earning a paid income. While
there are positive aspects to homebased work, such as flexible hours
which allow women to carry out their homebased work around their
family responsibilities, women often turn to homebased work due
to lack of necessary qualifications and formal training, absence
of child care support, social and cultural constraints and lack
of alternatives. Families need cash income for their survival. Loss
in formal employment and reduced returns from agriculture often
result in men migrating to urban centres, leaving behind women and
children. With home-based work being the only alternative available
to the poorest communities, it is not confined only to women but
also involves children, particularly girls.
In general, people who find it hard to find employment
due to various reasons such as cultural or legal restrictions, discrimination
and lack of qualifications wind up doing home-based work. Some men
and boys are included in this category. Those with disability also
often choose to work from home due to inaccessible transport systems
and work places.
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Why are homeworkers
called the ‘invisible’ workforce?
Homeworkers are members of the expanding workforce
of people working informally, often outside legal protection.
Homeworkers are the most invisible of all workers
as most of them are women working in their own homes.
According to the ILO, homework is women's work
almost by definition, so it is not surprising that it is often wrongly
confused with housework or domestic work. The invisibility of homebased
workers is directly related to the traditional isolation of women
within many societies that restricts their interactions with other
women outside of their families or immediate communities.
Many women refer to themselves as "not employed,"
or as "housewives", even when they are spending 14–16
hours a day earning income to support their families. They carry
out their tasks with minimal contact with the outside world, often
having little understanding of where the work comes from or where
it goes once it leaves their hands.
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How
has globalisation affected homebased work?
Globalisation is sweeping across the Asian region
and radically altering the social and economic environment of countries
as well as having a differing impact on women and men. Women’s
roles in the economies of the region are strong and increasing,
yet they are to be found in the most vulnerable sectors of both
employment and business. The deregulation of markets, increased
competition and development of new technologies that have occurred
as a result of globalisation and trade liberalization have led to
a significant boom in subcontracting through homebased work and
casual and part-time work. Growing competition has seen retailers
and suppliers use various cost cutting strategies. The informal
nature of home-based work makes it possible for employers to reduce
costs by taking advantage of low wages, low overheads and the flexibility
of a work force with few rights and a growing need for income. Subcontracting
in industries such as garments, footwear, toys, plastics and electronics
is taking place on an international scale.
Thus, while employment has expanded for women,
a majority of women are concentrated in non-standard forms of employment
which are insecure, yield low wages, provide little or no legal
and social protection and often involve poor working conditions.
These workers are dispersed, isolated, lacking in skills and access
to information. As a result, their bargaining power to improve their
situation and to gain an increased share of the benefits of globalization
is extremely limited.
The Asian financial crisis dramatised the impact
of globalisation. It has led to some painful effects in Southeast
Asian countries such as loss of jobs, loss of markets, falling piece
rates and profit margins and increased hours of work. The growing
informalisation, as more people after losing their employment in
the formal sector move to informal sector, has led to more competition
for paid work and scarce resources (i.e. Thailand, the Philippines
and Indonesia).
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