90% of home helps don't have a job contract

This means, said researchers, that were such people to have an accident at work or be forced to tolerate unreasonably long hours by their employers, there would be no recourse to legal help or financial benefit.

The amount of unprotected domestic workers in the Balearics has increased by 2 percent compared to figures for 2009 when 88 percent of home helps were without a contract.

Gadeso said that in the Islands, 54 percent of home helps are foreigners, the majority South Americans while 46 percent are Spaniards.
Nearly all such workers without a contract, said researchers are women aged between 31 and 45, and that more than half (56%) are in the Islands illegally.

The main tasks which they are called on to carry out in the home are cleaning, caring for the elderly and children.
It is the intention of Central Government to work to include home helps in Social Security registers and thus contribute to the fight to wipe out a black market economy. More than 40 percent of people interviewed by Gadeso said that given the responsibility of their work, a much higher professional importance should be placed on the service provided by home helps and domestic carers.