State budget includes support for domestic worker outreach program and Assembly Labor Committee advances SB 686 –
The California Domestic Workers Coalition celebrates two critical moments in the fight for domestic worker health and safety. The 2024-2025 budget signed by Governor Newsom today allocates $35 million in funding for the Domestic Worker and Employer Education and Outreach Program (DWEOP). This funding will make the pilot program permanent and allow community based organizations to expand education, outreach, and training for domestic workers and employers to ensure that domestic worker rights and their occupational safety and health are upheld throughout California.
“We want to thank the Governor, Assembly Speaker, Senate President pro Tem, and budget leadership for their continued strong support for domestic workers who are fighting for their health and safety in the workplace,” said Kimberly Alvarenga, Director of the California Domestic Workers Coalition. “Our outreach program is a key way to keep employees protected from labor violations and provide employers with the educational resources they need to keep the home workplace safe. Both employee and employer livelihoods are on the line when domestic workers are injured and cannot work. Continuing to take action on domestic worker safety is critical to keep our care economy stable and we need all leaders to join us in this fight.”
The program establishes a key partnership between the Department of Industrial Relations and community based organizations to reach, educate, and train domestic workers and domestic employers about the rights and protections domestic workers have. This program has helped strengthen compliance and serves as a critical model for strategic enforcement of labor protections through outreach and worker empowerment from community-based organizations. DWEOP’s continued support in the budget lays the foundation for the success of SB 686, the Health and Safety for all Workers Act, which would extend health and safety protections to the domestic work industry by giving Cal/OSHA authority to protect California’s over 300,000 nannies, housekeepers, homecare workers and others in the home workplace.
The Assembly Committee on Labor and Employment voted unanimously on June 28 to advance SB 686 which would end the discriminatory exclusion of domestic workers from the state’s workplace safety laws and would ensure that domestic workers have the same legal right as other workers to health and safety training and protective equipment, and to be protected from retaliation when they advocate for their own safety at work. The bill gives Cal/OSHA the authority to develop official health and safety guidance for employers and require household service employers to adhere to applicable health and safety measures.
SB 686 would further supplement DWEOP’s efforts by creating a program focused on providing technical and financial assistance for low-resourced employers to implement health and safety protections in their homes.
“When employers are given the guidelines and resources they need to protect their workers, they are able to make easy modifications to make our homes safer for those who care for our families,” said Jessica Ramey Stender, Policy Director and Deputy Legal Director at Equal Rights Advocates. “The state’s commitment to that model is a great first step, but our workers need meaningful legal protection to ensure that everyone in our workforce has the basic safety protections they need.”
SB 686 builds on the work of the SB 321 Advisory Committee who released California’s first-ever guidelines for occupational safety and health in home workplaces earlier this year. Policy recommendations made by the committee included ending the household domestic services exclusion from the California labor code giving Cal/OSHA the authority needed to implement health and safety protections for the in-home workforce.
The bill’s co-sponsors include the California Employment Lawyers Association, California Immigrant Policy Center, Equal Rights Advocates and WORKSAFE.
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For more information about the California Domestic Workers Coalition, please visit www.cadomesticworkers.org
Contacts: Nataly Bautista, communications@cadomesticworkers.org
California Domestic Workers Coalition (CDWC) 909-225-1710
The CDWC is a statewide coalition of organizations working to advance the dignity and respect for Domestic Workers and their families. The organizations that are a part of our steering committee include: ALMAS of the Graton Day Labor Center, Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles (CHIRLA), Filipino Advocates for Justice, Hand in Hand: The Domestic Employers Network, Instituto de Educación Popular del Sur California (IDEPSCA), Mujeres Unidas y Activas, Pilipino Workers Center, and The Women’s Collective of Dolores Street Community Services.