In 2017, when I researched and published an anthology about women caregivers, I neglected to reach out to the Domestic Workers Alliance which advocates for the more than two million women who work as nannies, housecleaners, and home care workers. I focused on women who told their personal stories of caregiving for spouses, children, parents and friends. It was a bad oversight that has troubled me since.
I was reminded of that in June when the Federal Domestic Worker Bill of Rights was reintroduced by Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA), Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) and Sen. Ben Ray Lujan (D-NM). Introduced initially in July 2019, before the pandemic hit by (then)Sen. Kamala Harris and Rep. Jayapal. It was groundbreaking legislation aimed at ensuring workplace protections for domestic workers in the U.S. and it is still sorely needed.
An article published in Mother Jones Magazine in April pointed out that "domestic workers perform grueling work with few protections," often providing care in isolated settings that render their work invisible, as feminists have known for decades as they fought for women's caretaking in the home to be seen as actual labor. As the Mother Jones article also noted, in the U.S., such work has also been done by Black women who were systematically excluded from the New Deal's labor agenda. Ever since then, they have struggled to achieve standards that are in place for others covered by labor laws.
According to the Domestic Workers Alliance, 84 percent of domestic workers don't have a written agreement with their employer. Twenty-three percent don't feel safe at work, and 81 percent receive no pay if their employer cancels the job with less than three days' notice. Over a third of domestic workers don't get a meal or rest break and if they do they aren't given compensation for that time. If they are full-time employees, they are extremely unlikely to get paid sick leave or vacation, or any kind of insurance. The work could involve childcare, cooking and cleaning houses, or providing physical care for family members who are aging or have disabilities. Yet their work is among the most undervalued in our society and the workers are among the most vulnerable people in the country.
The Alliance also points out that in the early 20th century, southern lawmakers prevented domestic workers from being included in federal labor laws because the majority of them were Black. It states that "to this day, the legacy of slavery continues to shape domestic work and domestic workers have limited protections under civil rights laws." That reality means that domestic workers are exploited and are often subject to long work hours with low pay, sudden job loss, sexual harassment and abuse.
The movement for ensuring all labor rights to domestic workers is global. The International Domestic Workers Federation is a global membership organization that operates in every part of the world. It began establishing its network in 2006 with the objective of building a strong, democratic and united domestic/household workers global organization to protect and advance domestic workers rights everywhere.
Here is just one story (edited for length) shared on their website.
Like many indigenous domestic workers in Mexico, Maria is an internal migrant; she travels from a small village to Mexico City daily. In the beginning she worked long hours, with no rest time, little food, and extremely low pay (US$7) for ten or more hours of work a day.
She felt she had to endure the conditions as a single mother of two daughters...she desperately needed the income. Years later, Maria moved to a new job, just before the pandemic hit.
Fearing that she would infect the household her new employer asked her to live-in but she couldn't because she had two children, leaving her without income until she learned about an organization that was providing emergency Covid-19 benefits to domestic workers.
In addition to emergency relief, she learned about her rights, negotiating techniques, and realized that her work had value. She was able to return to work and now has a contract that insures her rights.
It's a common story among domestic workers all over the world, and I should have sought their stories too.
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