A Study On Worker’s Compensation Insurance For Domestic Workers Employed By Families

A domestic worker is a person who enters the residence of a family member as a service recipient to provide paid services such as housekeeping,care of family members,and management of family affairs.The domestic service industry is gaining momentum and playing an important role in family care with the advent of an aging society.However,domestic workers have been on the fringes of the occupational group,and with the risk of occupational injury inherent,there is an urgent need to properly address the issue of workplace injury insurance.One of the most typical types of domestic workers is the family-employed type,who are employed by families through family and friends or intermediaries,and cannot be insured for work-related injuries because they do not have a labor relationship with the family and are not "employees".Therefore,the issue of work injury insurance for domestic workers employed by families should be studied in depth.This paper analyzes the current situation of work injury insurance for domestic workers employed by families and proposes that the establishment of a work injury insurance system for domestic workers employed by families is an inevitable choice in response to the special characteristics of domestic workers,and is also a just value.By learning from useful experiences abroad and summarizing the existing pilot experiences,we should make adjustments based on the existing pilot projects to allow single coverage and make it compulsory for domestic workers to participate in work injury insurance and for employers to bear a proportion of the insurance costs.Following the concept of mutual assistance,the government,employing families,domestic workers and other parties to promote the establishment of a work-related injury insurance system applicable to domestic workers employed by families.It is specifically divided into the following parts to develop.The introductory part mainly introduces the background and significance of the thesis.The prosperous development of the domestic industry and the lack of labor rights protection faced by domestic workers behind the scenes form a stark contrast.Promoting the solution of work injury insurance for domestic workers in domestic employment is both an inevitable requirement for the smooth development of the domestic industry to serve the society and an inevitable choice to protect the vulnerable groups.The first chapter mainly introduces the basic theories related to domestic workers for hire.It includes the historical origin,concept and characteristics of domestic workers,and introduces the concept of work injury and work injury insurance,the characteristics,scope of application and functions of work injury insurance.It is proposed that the application of work injury insurance to domestic workers in domestic employment is not only an inherent requirement to protect the marginalized occupational group,but also an inevitable choice to resolve diverse occupational injuries,which is in line with the value of fairness and justice and has multiple values and meanings.Chapter 2 focuses on the current situation and problems of legal protection for domestic workers in domestic employment.The current work injury insurance is tied to labor relations,and in practice,domestic workers who have not established labor relations are unable to participate in work injury insurance.Tort liability law fails to effectively protect domestic workers,and other incentives are difficult to solve the problem,creating a dilemma for domestic workers employed by families to apply workrelated injury insurance.Chapter 3 introduces the current status of the application of workers’ compensation insurance for domestic workers in the United States and Taiwan region.The states in the U.S.have different attitudes toward this issue,which can be divided into the voluntary employer choice model of workers’ compensation insurance,the excluded domestic worker model,and the mandatory workers’ compensation insurance model,among which the mandatory workers’ compensation insurance model is the focus of reference.In Taiwan region,overseas workers were included in the protection of the Labor Standards Law when they first emerged,and then excluded due to the scope of employers’ families and welfare groups.The draft domestic labor protection law,which has been submitted to the “Executive Yuan” several times since then,has been shelved,and the draft provides for mandatory employer labor insurance coverage for domestic workers.Chapter 4 introduces the basic situation of the current pilot labor injury insurance implemented in various places for specific workers,including domestic workers.It also proposes to follow the social security concept of mutual aid and assistance,adhere to the principles of independent participation and compulsory insurance,and make some specific designs on the contribution mechanism,injury recognition and treatment payment of the domestic workers’ work injury insurance system for domestic workers employed by families.At the same time,some other auxiliary measures and instruments are added.