Labor & Employment Law

New York Lawmakers Pass Domestic Worker Rights Bill

By James Parks

New York is on the verge of becoming the first state to require overtime pay and one day off a week for domestic workers after the state Senate on Tuesday passed landmark legislation extending those rights to more than 200,000 housekeepers, nannies and other domestic workers in the state.

The state Assembly passed a similar bill last year and lawmakers must reconcile the differences in the bills. The new law would take effect Jan.1.

State Sen. Diane Savino, a Staten Island Democrat, told the Associated Press:

New York has long been a leader in protecting the rights of workers. We enacted child labor laws long before the federal government did and were the first to pass labor protections for those toiling in sweatshops.

Domestic Workers United (DWU) estimates there are 200,000 domestic workers in New York City alone. Most are female immigrant workers. Formed in 2000, DWU is an organization of Caribbean, Latina and African nannies, housekeepers and elderly caregivers in New York who fight for the rights of domestic workers.  

Some 100 domestic workers rallied at the state capitol in Albany on Tuesday to urge lawmakers to vote “yes” on the bill. The vote capped a long campaign by the workers to gain justice. On its website, DWU says:

We have come so far, since we first set out on this journey. We have gotten everyone to learn about the domestic workers’ plight and the history of exclusion. We have built and deepened strong alliances with many different sectors of our society. Everyone has been touched and moved in some way. We could not have accomplished all that we have without your support and without you standing alongside us in this struggle.   

Minimum wage laws apply to domestic workers nationally, but those workers who live in their employers’ homes are excluded from overtime requirements. Workers’ groups in California mobilized to get similar state legislation introduced to extend overtime pay to domestic workers.

Full post as published by AFL-CIO NOW BLOG on June 03, 2010 (boomark / email).