Domestic workers in Uganda are mostly girls the age of 16 and above who are hired to do domestic chores in a home. They are commonly referred to as “housemaids” or “house girls”. On rare occasions old women and “house boys” are also involved in offering this kind of labour. Other categories include drivers and other workers in farms and gardens.

A domestic worker is one who works in or for another person’s home. For a person to qualify as a domestic worker, he/she must be engaged in domestic work within an employment relationship. The term “employment relationship” excludes those persons from domestic work who;

1. Perform their work only occasionally or sporadically (such as part-time babysitters)
2. Perform the domestic work as a family responsibility (child care, elder care, etc.)

However, workers employed for the cleaning of public and private buildings and any other above-mentioned activities are not domestic workers as domestic work is a household work and is usually performed within the boundaries of a house.

Since domestic workers are not regulated in Uganda, they quite often get exposed to uncontrolled, hazardous and exploitative work harmful to their health or physical, mental, spiritual, moral or social development. Nonetheless, like other workers, a domestic employee is entitled to report suspected wrongdoing to the district labour officer who will attempt to solve the matter with the employee and employer. In the case of failure, the matter can be taken to the labour commissioner.