“Domestic workers are an integral part of the economy, but we continue to suffer injuries on the job every day. We have to be included in Cal / OSHA protections so that our employers take into account our health and safety and to prevent other workers from having experiences like what I went through.”
My story is quite intense but unfortunately there are many domestic workers who have very similar experiences. I worked two years for a cleaning company in San Francisco. The work with them was very heavy and the hours were from 6 AM until 9 or 10 PM without any breaks. Normally we only ate in the car when our bosses took us from one house to another. They said this was our break.
They paid us $11 an hour – less than the minimum wage in San Francisco and only paid us for 6 hours a day. The company owner told us we could not do anything about it.
When I was 3 months pregnant. I was sent to an apartment and our bosses wanted us to do a deep cleaning before the new tenants came in. I was lifting and moving boxes, moving the couches, and cleaning the bathrooms.
I returned home at 11 at night after more than 16 hours working and could hardly walk due to deep pain. I woke up bleeding and in a lot of pain. I went to the hospital and the baby came. I lost it. They told me it was a miscarriage. I’m sure it was because of the 16 hours of heavy work that I did with this company.
Domestic workers are an integral part of the economy, but we continue to suffer these types of injuries on the job every day. If I were included in safety and health laws, my employer would have been required to mitigate the risks on the job and given us training, equipment and guidance about how to move heavy objects together as well as ensuring we were asked to work at a healthy and safe pace with enough rest during physically demanding tasks.
Just like any other job, our employers should follow Cal / OSHA requirements and take into account our health and safety and to prevent other workers from having experiences like what I went through.
