Unlike other workers who, regardless of immigration status, are protected by federal and state laws, the vast majority of America’s 2.5 million domestic workers are explicitly left out of these protections.
“Domestic workers live in the legacy of slavery, and this legacy continues to shape the sector today,” said Allison Julien, co-director of the New York Chapter of We Dream in Black and a founding member of the National Domestic Workers Alliance (NDWA). “Government leaders deliberately carved out domestic and farmworkers” from any law that could protect their rights, Julien added.
Domestic workers were excluded from the National Labor Relations Act, the Occupational Safety and Health Act and the Fair Labor Standards Act because Southern senators refused to grant equal protection to a workforce made up largely of black women. That legacy is alive and well today.
Domestic workers are entitled to the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour, but they do not have the right to form unions and are not covered by federal anti-discrimination laws. Employers are not obligated to provide safe working conditions or protective gear for workers.
Of the nine states and the city of Seattle which have versions of a “domestic workers’ bill of rights,” most of them lack enforceable frameworks, according to Polaris, a nonprofit that operates a national human trafficking hotline, conducts research and promotes policy changes.
New York has a domestic worker law, but people who work less than 40 hours a week cannot access its benefits. Day laborers who are hired by the day or by the hour, are similarly excluded from the law’s benefits, as are undocumented people. Black and undocumented domestic workers have been disproportionately affected by these exclusions.
The vast majority of domestic workers are immigrants, which makes them particularly vulnerable to exploitation and labor trafficking –when employees are forced to remain on the job through threats, violence or other forms of coercion, or brought to a country through fraudulent means. Domestic workers have often been left to the mercy of employers.
Andrea Rojas, director of Strategic Initiatives at Polaris, says that this is a form of modern-day slavery. This situation, she adds, “sends the very dangerous message that since these workers have been excluded from protections granted to other work categories, they are less valuable. We are talking about foreign workers who often do not know the language, who are isolated and without their safety networks,” Rojas explains. There’s also a power imbalance, she adds, when low-paid laborers work in wealthy people’s houses.
https://inthesetimes.com/article/domestic-worker-labor-covid-slavery
“Domestic workers live in the legacy of slavery, and this legacy continues to shape the sector today,” said Allison Julien, co-director of the New York Chapter of We Dream in Black and a founding member of the National Domestic Workers Alliance (NDWA). “Government leaders deliberately carved out domestic and farmworkers” from any law that could protect their rights, Julien added.
Domestic workers were excluded from the National Labor Relations Act, the Occupational Safety and Health Act and the Fair Labor Standards Act because Southern senators refused to grant equal protection to a workforce made up largely of black women. That legacy is alive and well today.
Domestic workers are entitled to the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour, but they do not have the right to form unions and are not covered by federal anti-discrimination laws. Employers are not obligated to provide safe working conditions or protective gear for workers.
Of the nine states and the city of Seattle which have versions of a “domestic workers’ bill of rights,” most of them lack enforceable frameworks, according to Polaris, a nonprofit that operates a national human trafficking hotline, conducts research and promotes policy changes.
New York has a domestic worker law, but people who work less than 40 hours a week cannot access its benefits. Day laborers who are hired by the day or by the hour, are similarly excluded from the law’s benefits, as are undocumented people. Black and undocumented domestic workers have been disproportionately affected by these exclusions.
The vast majority of domestic workers are immigrants, which makes them particularly vulnerable to exploitation and labor trafficking –when employees are forced to remain on the job through threats, violence or other forms of coercion, or brought to a country through fraudulent means. Domestic workers have often been left to the mercy of employers.
Andrea Rojas, director of Strategic Initiatives at Polaris, says that this is a form of modern-day slavery. This situation, she adds, “sends the very dangerous message that since these workers have been excluded from protections granted to other work categories, they are less valuable. We are talking about foreign workers who often do not know the language, who are isolated and without their safety networks,” Rojas explains. There’s also a power imbalance, she adds, when low-paid laborers work in wealthy people’s houses.
https://inthesetimes.com/article/domestic-worker-labor-covid-slavery
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