All names in the story have been changed to respect the privacy of those involved.
Almaz raised her hand to speak, voicing the concerns of many women in the room. In recent months, she faced an impossible choice - to care for her child or keep her job - and was here seeking support and solutions.
Almaz and 13 others were attending a women-only meeting organised by the WageIndicator team in Ethiopia, discussing the challenges they faced working for a leather factory near Addis Ababa. These meetings were part of WageIndicator’s DecentWorkCheck project in Ethiopia, which assesses labour law compliance and supported data-driven social dialogues in the country’s garment factories.
Almaz recently celebrated the birth of her child, Ayele, but her joy was cut short soon after. Her workplace lacked childcare facilities, and there was no one to look after baby Ayele at home. She was forced to look for nannies, but struggled because their salary demands were higher than what Almaz made (3,200 birr or $60 per month).
Eventually, she came to a three-month long agreement with one, Lelise, allowing her to return to work. But Lelise didn’t stay - after just two months, she left without notice, ignoring Almaz’s pleas. She would lose her job if didn’t go to work, but Lelise’s mind was made up.
For the next three days, Almaz stayed home, fearful of what awaited when she returned to work.
When she eventually returned on the fourth day, she was forced to leave baby Ayele at home without supervision. Her employer remained unempathetic to her plight, threatening to fire her for continued absence. She had “no option but resort to begging” from the management, but to no avail.
Almaz’s challenges reflect broader difficulties that working mothers in Ethiopia face. Though the country’s labour law does provide for 120 days of paid maternity leave, once a mother returns to work she is not entitled even to breastfeeding breaks. No legal provisions supported work-life balance for parents with familial responsibilities either.
And so, after a sleepless night, Almaz returned to work. Thankfully, her neighbours agreed to look after baby Ayele. However, even their patience wore thin in a week, leaving her where she started. She faced an impossible situation - should she continue to work and leave her newborn unsupervised at home, or quit her job and lose her source of income.
Even her husband failed to empathise with her anxiety. In a society where childcare is the mother’s domain (only three days of paid paternity leave are granted to fathers), this isn’t surprising. It also means that union leaders - who are almost entirely male, despite women making about 80% of the sector’s workforce - usually do not emphasise such concerns in social dialogues. Consequently, no Ethiopian collective agreements in our database has active provisions for childcare.1
Almaz’s only source of support were these women-only meetings. Here, our team members heard her and, though they couldn’t address this specific situation, they encouraged all in attendance to actively participate in union activities and make their voices heard.
The process is bearing fruit, slowly. Between 2023 and 2024, findings from the DecentWorkCheck surveys facilitated data-driven social dialogues between unions and employers. This led to a drop in non-compliance on maternity-related subjects from 20% of factories to 7% in just one year.
And though this didn’t have a direct bearing on Almaz’s situation, there was a happy ending for her too. She struck a fair agreement with another nanny for baby Ayele, sparing her the choice between her child’s safety and her work.
1. One agreement from ETH MNS Textile Factory did have such provisions, but noted since the organisation did not have the capacity for this at the time, the provision would only come into effect at a future date when it did