Human Rights Day: Fighting for Domestic Workers

by James Parks, Dec 10, 2009

Today, International Human Rights Day, the National Domestic Worker Alliance is joining with domestic workers around the world to launch a campaign to call for improved labor standards for their industry.

Domestic work, which includes housecleaning, child-care and elder care, is not covered by many basic labor laws, leaving those who perform this work extremely vulnerable to abuse and exploitation on the job. Domestic workers across the globe are demanding the creation of international labor standards for domestic work through the passage of an International Labor Organization (ILO) Convention on Domestic Work. They also are proposing policy changes at the state and national levels to ensure basic labor protections for domestic workers.

Ana Avendaño, assistant to AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka, says “the domestic worker industry is riddled with abuse, mistreatment and labor violations.”

The mostly female and immigrant domestic workforce is particularly vulnerable due to the isolated nature of the industry, where women labor behind closed doors and out of the public eye.

Domestic workers’ exclusion from the National Labor Relations Act means they are unprotected when asking for respect of their basic rights and are unable to collectively bargain for conditions allowing them to labor in dignity. For all these reasons, it’s critically important that we create strong labor standards for domestic workers.

In New York and California, domestic workers are proposing Domestic Worker Bills of Rights that ensure overtime pay, workers compensation, health and safety protections, notice of termination, vacation and sick leave, annual cost of living increases and five hours of uninterrupted sleep.

International Human Rights Day falls on the anniversary of the signing of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948.

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