Private Employment Agencies’ Response to a ‘Crisis of Representation’ in South Africa’s Domestic Work Sector

South Africa’s domestic work sector remains a lifeline for many black African women seeking work opportunities to support their households. While employment opportunities have contracted, there is a concerning increase in part-time and precarious working conditions among domestic workers. These changes are attributed to an ailing economy, the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic and a proliferation of intermediaries (formal and informal) competing with each other to meet the demands of clients/employers seeking affordable domestic workers primarily through indirect employment arrangements. The objective of this paper is two-fold. First, to make visible the role of and demand for the services of private employment agencies (PEAs) among employers and domestic workers. Second, to demonstrate why and how PEAs are driving the decent work agenda between employers and domestic workers. Drawing on the Flexible Worlds of Work model and ethnographic research among employers, migrant domestic workers and agencies, this paper shifts attention to permanently employed domestic workers (the core workforce) and agencies specializing in placements in post-apartheid South Africa. The findings point to both employers and domestic workers seeking an alternative to insecure and problematic employment relationship with and through PEAs because of a crisis of representation. In other words, who represents their interests towards meeting or achieving decent work. I argue that PEAs serve as an exemplar for transforming the domestic work sector and promoting a decent work agenda. However, PEAs response to transforming the domestic work sector emanates from their pragmatic response to the crisis of representation among employers and domestic workers seeking an alternative to a demobilized trade union and ineffective state intervention in the domestic work sector. Yet, PEAs response to a crisis of representation has serious implications for challenging the status quo in the domestic work sector and contributing meaningfully to multi-layered approach to achieving decent work.