L’INTERMÉDIATION DANS LE TRAVAIL DOMESTIQUE : ENTRE TRAVAIL DE L’APPARIEMENT ET L’EXPLOITATION DE L’EMPLOYÉ / INTERMEDIATION IN DOMESTIC WORK: BETWEEN MATCHING WORK AND EMPLOYEE EXPLOITATION

Abstract

Traditionnellement, le travail domestique occupe une place centrale dans les sociétés. Sa prégnance traduit sa consubstance à la vie qui fait de lui un pôle d’emplois mobilisant bien d’acteurs. Aujourd’hui, le travail à domicile se développe avec l’intervention des intermédiaires qui apparaissent sous diverses formes dans la mise en relation de l’offre et de la demande du travail domestique. Avec les process qui sont les leurs, les différents modèles d’intermédiaires parviennent à apparier l’offre et la demande d’emploi domestique et à en tirer profit avec ou sans l’implication des employeurs. La présente contribution restitue une enquête menée dans les villes méridionales du Bénin et vise à questionner les différents modèles d’intermédiation sur le marché du travail domestique et les déviances qu’ils génèrent. De façon spécifique, il s’est agi de décrire les intermédiaires du marché du travail domestique et leurs rôles, de présenter les conditions de travail des salariés de maison et d’identifier les facteurs d’inertie qui plombent leur épanouissement. De nature qualitative, la recherche a combiné les entretiens individuels directifs, l’observation in situ et de la recension des écrits qui ont permis de collecter les corpus analysés suivant l’approche interactionniste. Les modèles d’intermédiation, le rôle des démarcheurs, les mécanismes d’appariement du travail domestique, la précarisation et l’exploitation des travailleurs domestiques sont les principaux résultats de l’enquête. 

Traditionally, domestic work occupies a central place in societies. Its prevalence reflects its consubstance with life which makes it a center of employment mobilizing many actors. Today, home work is developing with the intervention of intermediaries who appear in various forms in the connection between supply and demand of domestic work. With their own processes, the different intermediary models manage to match the supply and demand of domestic employment and to profit from it with or without the involvement of employers. This contribution presents a survey conducted in the southern cities of Benin and aims to question the different models of intermediation on the domestic labor market and the deviations they generate. Specifically, the aim was to describe the intermediaries in the domestic labour market and their roles, to present the working conditions of domestic workers and to identify the factors of inertia which hamper their development. Qualitative in nature, the research combined directive individual interviews, in situ observation and a review of the writings which made it possible to collect the corpora analyzed following the interactionist approach. The main results of the survey are the intermediation models, the role of canvassers, the mechanisms for matching domestic work, the precariousness and exploitation of domestic workers.

Traditionally, domestic work occupies a central place in societies. Its prevalence reflects its consubstance with life which makes it a center of employment mobilizing many actors. Today, home work is developing with the intervention of intermediaries who appear in various forms in the connection between supply and demand of domestic work. With their own processes, the different intermediary models manage to match the supply and demand of domestic employment and to profit from it with or without the involvement of employers. This contribution presents a survey conducted in the southern cities of Benin and aims to question the different models of intermediation on the domestic labor market and the deviations they generate. Specifically, the aim was to describe the intermediaries in the domestic labour market and their roles, to present the working conditions of domestic workers and to identify the factors of inertia which hamper their development. Qualitative in nature, the research combined directive individual interviews, in situ observation and a review of the writings which made it possible to collect the corpora analyzed following the interactionist approach. The main results of the survey are the intermediation models, the role of canvassers, the mechanisms for matching domestic work, the precariousness and exploitation of domestic workers.

Article visualizations: