California Domestic Workers Coalition

The Health and Safety for All Workers Act

For far too long, domestic workers have been excluded from basic labor protections, including the health and safety protections of CAL/OSHA. 

The COVID-19 pandemic and recent devastating wildfires in California has exacerbated the dangers that domestic workers and day laborers face on a daily basis because they are excluded from CAL/OSHA protections and regulations. 

One of the graphics for our digital campaign-domestic workers smiling at a grassroots lobbying event.

Right now domestic workers are right at the frontline of the COVID-19  pandemic. They work with people most vulnerable to the illness, like the elderly and people with compromised immune systems, often without adequate protective equipment or training. And they themselves don’t have a safety net to lean on in times of crisis, like affordable health care, unemployment benefits, and paid sick days.

During the wildfires that devastated California, we saw a similar phenomenon. Domestic workers and other household workers, like day laborers, were asked to stay behind to fight fires, guard homes or pets, work in smoky conditions, and clean up toxic ash, all without protective equipment. Workers were further put at risk when employers failed to warn them that the homes they work in were under mandatory evacuation. 

Domestic workers often have to make the impossible choice between working in unsafe conditions or going without any income, especially during these kinds of crises. But domestic workers face risks every day- the risk of injury,  exposure to infectious disease and household cleaning chemicals, and the very real threat of physical, emotional, and sexual abuse by employers or clients, because of their often isolated and informal work environment.

End the Exclusion- Domestic Workers Deserve Health and Safety Now!

To protect the health and safety of California’s domestic workers, we are working with our allies to pass SB 1257 The Health and Safety for All Workers Act. SB 1257 would remove the historical exclusion of domestic workers, so that domestic workers can have the legal right to health and safety training and protective equipment, and be protected against retaliation when they try to protect their own health and safety at work. 

Please join us in working to pass SB 1257, the Health and Safety for All Workers Act!


You can learn more about how you can support the campaign by checking our Facebook or twitter pages or by signing up for e-mail updates here-
https://www.cadomesticworkers.org/sign-up-for-email-updates/

California Domestic Worker Bill Of Rights

For more than ten years, the California Domestic Workers Coalition has waged the campaign for the California Domestic Worker Bill of Rights to correct the history of exclusion from basic labor protections and to advance the rights and dignity of domestic workers.

SACRAMENTO, CA (1/24/12) — Domestic workers and their children march and rally outside the California state capitol building to urge legislators to pass AB 889 the CA Domestic Worker Bill of Rights. Photo Credit: David Bacon
  1. Equal right to rest and lunch breaks for personal assistants.
  2. Equal Overtime Pay
  3. Equal right to a safe & healthy workplace
  4. Equal right to workers compensation
  5. Equal right to reporting time pay
  6. Equal right to notice before termination
  7. Right to 8 hours uninterrupted sleep
  8. Right to cook one’s own food
  9. Right to annual cost of living increase
  10. Right to paid vacations.
  11. Right to paid sick days

Domestic Worker Rights Education and Outreach Program

As new rights for domestic workers get written into the law, it is equally important to ensure that both workers and employers are empowered with information about the labor laws governing this industry so that the rights of domestic workers may be upheld in every California home.

“AB 2314 sets up protections to ensure domestic workers understand their rights. The bill recognizes that jobs performed by domestic workers are just as valuable as any other work, and that these hardworking individuals deserve the same employer protections as everyone else.”

Assemblymember Phil Ting (D-San Francisco)

Expanding the Affordability of Home Care

In 2016, the California Domestic Workers Coalition partnered with Pilipino Workers Center to launch the CARE Agenda, a declaration of our vision for a long-term care system that supports the dignity of consumers and upholds fair employment standards for caregivers.

This year, as a member of the California Aging and Disability Alliance, the California Domestic Workers Coalition is helping bring the vision of the CARE Agenda to fruition through support of SB 512 (Pan). This bill would establish the California Long-Term Services and Supports Benefits Board (LTSS Board), to be composed of 9 specified members, to be able to manage and invest revenue deposited in the California Long-Term Services and Supports Benefits Trust Fund (LTSS Trust) and to finance long-term services and supports for eligible individuals, upon appropriation of funds. The bill would also create the Long-Term Services and Supports Advisory Committee, composed of nine members that have experience in aging and disability services, from both consumer, worker and provider perspectives, for the purpose of providing ongoing advice and recommendations to the LTSS Board.