In 2020, domestic workers’ rights is a rising issue in states from Massachusetts to California, and has recently found a footing in D.C. — both at a local and federal level.
The D.C. Council’s Domestic Workers Protection Act of 2019 amends numerous other laws that domestic workers like housekeepers and nannies were intentionally written out of in decades past. Most notably, the bill would amend the D.C. Human Rights Act of 1977 to include domestic workers as a category protected from abuse by an employer by law.
According to Antonia Peña, a domestic worker and D.C.-area organizer with the National Domestic Workers Alliance, domestic workers face discrimination on both a systemic and personal level, because a majority of the workers in this field are women of color, sometimes with a limited ability to speak English.
Domestic workers have little to no protection under the law, even from things like sexual harassment and assault by their employers, according to Vox.
“Our job is not socially valued. People shame us,” Peña said.
The bill would also insert language including domestic workers in basic labor protections in D.C. labor laws like the Wage Payment and Collection Act, Minimum Wage Act Revision Act, Accrued Sick and Safe Leave Act, Family and Medical Leave Act, Universal Paid Leave Act, Parental Leave Act, Occupational Safety and Health Act, and Pregnant Workers Fairness Act, all of which previously excluded domestic workers.
These laws are the underpinning of basic labor protections like paid sick leave, family and medical leave, fair pay and a safe working environment that are enjoyed by around 800,000 workers in the District. Currently, domestic workers are at the mercy of their employer when it comes to all of these protections.
Since domestic work occurs primarily in the private sphere, it can be difficult to regulate. This is why domestic workers say they need more than to simply be written into existing laws. Key to making sure these protections actually take effect is oversight and outreach, according to advocates.
“The other part of this is also establishing a labor standards board and creating the mechanisms to enforce our rights,” Peña said.
The Domestic Workers Protection Act of 2019 would establish a Domestic Workers Standards Board to, “provide a forum for hiring entities, domestic workers, worker organizations, and the public to consider, analyze, and make recommendations for the District on the legal protections, benefits, and working conditions for domestic workers.” It would also create a Division of Paid Care within the Department of Employment Services to educate the community on new standards.
The primary opponent of domestic workers labor protection legislation nationwide are au pair companies, according to Peña and Joanna Arellano, a press strategist for NDWA.
Washington, D.C., Maryland and Virginia are among the top destinations for au pairs, according to the State Department.
Au pairs are foreigners — usually women — who come to the United States to work as a live-in nanny in what is billed as a cultural exchange program by the State Department and the au pair companies themselves. Positions like these are common in and around upper class areas of East Coast cities like Washington, D.C., New York City and Boston.
In Massachusetts, au pair companies sued the state government to exclude au pairs from a domestic workers bill of rights law, as it would increase the cost of employing an au pair around 250 percent. However, as families fought against the additional protections for workers, many au pairs were elated about their newly confirmed rights, according to The New York Times.
The State of Massachusetts reached a settlement with the au pair company that would provide partial refunds to au pair families in early February.
“The comprehensive federal regulations provide extensive protections for au pairs, including protections beyond those found in domestic worker laws,” said Ilir Zherka, executive director of the Alliance for International Exchange which is a trade organization representing au pair companies, in an emailed statement. “Attempts to misclassify au pairs as domestic workers will only serve to weaken the protections from which they currently benefit under the federal statute as J-1 visa holders.”
However, a 2017 Politico Magazine article detailed how au pairs fall victim to many of the same abusive practices that other domestic workers do. Au pairs, like other domestic workers, are frequently the victims of stolen pay and time, sexual harassment and assault, and common cruelties at the hands of their employers. And while the State Department and others sell the program as cultural exchange to the public, to prospective families it is sold as cheap childcare and au pairs have little recourse against abusive employers, according to the magazine.
The D.C. bill is expected to get a hearing in front of the Committee on Labor and Workforce Development in fall, according to spokespersons for the committee and for Council member Brandon Todd, who introduced the bill.
The bill received sponsorships from Council members David Grosso and Robert C. White, Jr., who are on the labor committee. Council member Elissa Silverman is the chair of the committee, but is not yet prepared to release a position on the bill, according to a spokesperson who also said that the committee will be occupied by oversight and budgetary duties until summer.
Whether legal protections are won or not, the NDWA is devoted to making domestic workers’ lives easier. They are using technology to ensure fair benefits and expectations for domestic workers.
NDWA has created two software programs — ALIA and Contracts for Nannies — that make it easy for employers of domestic workers to make contributions to a benefits account that workers can use for things like paid time off or insurance, or to write up a clear and concise contract understandable to both parties, respectively.
“ALIA provides a platform where domestic workers can have all their employers plug into this system where they can accumulate paid days off, because as domestic workers they don’t benefit from those types of basic labor protections that most workers have,” Arellano said.
Advanced Reporting Times, Spring 2020 