Domestics - Definition - Law Dictionary Home Dictionary Definition domestics

Definition :

Domestics, menial servants (so called from being intra m'nia domus, within the walls of a house). The contract between them and their masters arises upon the hiring. In this country it is usual to engage domestic servants at a fixed amount of wages per annum. But there is generally no express stipulation as to the time that the service is to last; and when the terms are not otherwise defined the contract is thus understood that either party may determine the service at pleasure, upon a month's warning or upon payment of a month's wages. As to the persons entitled under a bequest to 'domestic servants,' see Re Lawson, (1914) 1 Ch 682; Re Jackson, 39 TLR 400. See MASTER AND SERVANT.

For the purposes of Unemployment Insurance, employment in domestic service, except where the employed in any trade or business carried on for the purpose of gain, is an excepted employment under the (English) Unemployment Insurance Acts, 1935 and 1936 (25 & 26 Geo. 5, c. 8) and (26 Geo. 5 & 1 Edw. 8, c. 13). Health Insurance: domestic service is an employment within the meaning of the (English) National Health Insurance Act, 1924 (14 & 15 Geo. 5, c. 33), s. 1