Instead of cooking for the family circle for which you work, Jesus Almeida’s Nilza now sends her employer’s recipes over the phone. His employer has become a passionate cook, while the circle of the usual cook of the relatives has become a coach.
Almeida, 70, moved through the photos sent to her by her employer. His boss couldn’t have better prepared the eggplant lasagna, Almeida said.
“She cooks rice and beans, soufflé, shrimp with vegetables, everything, ” said Almeida. “I explained the dish in detail over the phone. In two weeks, he learned everything.
The coronavirus pandemic appears to have led to an unthinkable progression in the past in Brazil: many families have temporarily abandoned domestic workers, or “empregadas”, the Portuguese word for maid.
The paintings made are mostly made through women, who care for their families and children. Domestic service is part of the legacy of slave labor, which was not abolished in Brazil until 1888.
It is in 2013 that domestic staff get the same protections as normal employees. In practice, discrimination against domestic staff in Brazil continues.
About 8 million other people paint as cleaners in Brazil, part of them without a formal contract, many of whom are black women from poor environments.
A profession?
The coronavirus pandemic has led wealthy Brazilians to wonder if domestic staff are as essential to their homes as they think they are. Many domestic workers are recently unemployed: their employers have lost their jobs and let them through to save money.
Surprisingly, many home employers have become accustomed to cooking and cleaning. There is also a high-tech risk to the work of domestic workers: supermarkets deliver groceries, food and meal kits that are accompanied by recipes and ingredients, can be ordered online and delivered. loose cargo.
“If they continue, they will probably only want to be soaked once a week instead of every single day,” said Maria Noeli dos Santos, director of Fenatrad, the national federation of domestic workers. This is “decreasing more and more,” she said.
Because of their precariousness and adjustments in the labour market, Noeli dos Santos added, “many will paint during the pandemic and put themselves and others at risk”: staff simply cannot lose their jobs.
To save for retirement, Noeli dos Santos, 64, is hired as a domestic worker and coordinates the union’s efforts. “Once you get used to the benefits, you no longer need to do without a domestic worker,” she says.
Since March, when the first pandemic restrictions were imposed, Brazil’s domestic staff have sought election income. “Many have tried new things at home,” Said Noeli dos Santo. “Some other people prepare ready foods and sell them. Others offer manicures. If he paints, they continue; Other words, they will see pictures as steep again. “
‘No choice’
One of the first people to die of COVID-19 in Brazil, a 63-year-old domestic worker, Cleonice Gonoalves, in March, contracted the virus from her employer, who contracted it while on vacation in Italy.
The employer suspected that he might have had the virus and even had his control, but he did not tell Gonsalves. When the positive result of the control arrived, Gonoalves was already dead.
“The social inequality that existed before the pandemic acquires ruthless characteristics and moves the weakest,” Brazilian sociologist Ricardo Antunes wrote in his new e-book on coronavirus. death. “
Gonçalves’ death demonstrates that many Brazilian middle- and upper-class families do not need to do without their servants, not even from a pandemic.
Many employers now organize and pay for shared travel so that domestic staff don’t have to use public transportation and may be exposed to the virus.
“Apart from me, all my companions are going to work, ” said Almeida. “Their employers will advance them even if they or the employer have COVID-19. “
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