Legal recognition is not protection: what registration changes for domestic workers in Uzbekistan

In Uzbekistan, 260,265 people are registered as self-employed in domestic services and about 91 per cent of them are women. Muhabbat, 41, and Dilorom, 50, are domestic workers interviewed for a new UN Women study and neither is on that register. Muhabbat lives and works in a family’s home in Tashkent and did not know registration existed. Dilorom knew about it and decided against it.

The study examines how recent legal reforms and the registration system have changed domestic workers’ access to labour rights, social protection and economic security. Developed by the UN Women Europe and Central Asia Regional Office, it draws on labour market analysis, a legislative review and interviews with workers and officials.

Why women take this work

Among registered women, more than 113,000 work in childcare, 84,000 in housekeeping and cooking, and 32,000 in eldercare.

Muhabbat came from Jizzakh, a province 200 kilometres southwest of Tashkent, to pay for her daughter’s schooling. “People without diplomas are usually offered only very low-paid jobs,” she says. Factory work pays UZS 1.5 million (about USD 125) to UZS 2 million (about USD 165). She earns USD 300 a month, plus a room for them both and meals. Twice a year she studies for two weeks in Chirchiq, near Tashkent, toward a degree she hopes will free her.

Dilorom started cleaning houses for the same reason. “I was unable to find a good job,” she says. Five or six families call her back and she charges UZS 350,000 (about USD 30) a day.

Recognized in law, unregulated in practice

The 2022 Labour Code recognised domestic work for the first time, defining domestic workers as employees and requiring a written contract. Registering it is not mandatory and the Code sets no rules on hours, overtime or rest.

Neither woman has a contract and neither did any of the workers interviewed for the study. They knew what a contract would give them and did not ask for one. “I was afraid,” one told the researcher. “They could easily replace me.”

Muhabbat agreed her day would begin before the family wakes and end after they go to bed. They rise around 11 a.m. and stay up past midnight. “Even when I am tired, I stay awake because I worry they may ask me to do something,” she says.

Registration is not protection

Since 2020, domestic workers have been able to register as self-employed. One annual payment of UZS 412,000, about USD 34 in 2026, counts as a year toward a pension. It provides nothing else: no sick pay, no maternity benefits, no protection if the family decides it no longer needs the worker’s services. Payment is voluntary and only about 30 per cent make it, Deputy Minister of Economy and Finance Otabek Fozilkarimov told Uzbekiston 24 television in July 2026.

The study calls this “second-tier formality”. Dilorom did not register because it “feels like unnecessary paperwork and additional expenses”. She thinks constantly about her pension and would take a permanent job with contributions if it paid as well.

Muhabbat has no savings and makes no pension contributions. A month-long illness would cost her both the job and her income, forcing her to return to her parents in Jizzakh. “That is why I do everything I can to avoid getting sick.”

From recognition to protection

The study sets out six policy directions, from clarifying who falls under employment law and who under self-employment, to monitoring suited to private homes.

In July 2026, Fozilkarimov said the President had approved proposals to make the payment compulsory and direct part of it into the Social Insurance Fund, opening the way to sickness and childcare benefits. No timetable is set.

Uzbekistan has ratified International Labour Organization conventions on equal pay and non-discrimination, but not Convention No. 189 on Domestic Workers which sets standards on working time, rest and social security.

Uzbekistan is a pathfinder country of the Global Accelerator on Jobs and Social Protection for Just Transitions, which treats the care economy as a source of decent work. Under the joint programme, UN Women leads the work on formalising care jobs.

“Uzbekistan has recognized domestic work in law and opened a route to registration. That is real progress. But a registered domestic worker still has no paid sick leave, no maternity benefit and nothing to fall back on if the family ends the arrangement tomorrow. As a woman, she funds her own pension out of a low wage. This study sets out how the state and the households that employ a woman can share those payments instead of leaving them to her alone,” said Ceren Guven-Gures, Head of the UN Women Central Asia Liaison Office.

The research was carried out under the joint programme “Accelerating decent jobs and social protection for a just transition to formality in Uzbekistan”, implemented by ILO, UNDP, UNICEF and UN Women under the Global Accelerator on Jobs and Social Protection for Just Transitions. The joint programme is supported by the Joint SDG Fund.