“The work I do makes it possible for my employers to live their lives, travel, and do their work because they are assured that their children are safe with me. We leave a lot of ourselves, a lot of years lived, in our workplaces as nannies. That is why the need for our health and safety rights is real and urgent.”
My name is Norma Miranda and I am an active member of CHIRLA of the San Fernando Valley. I have been a domestic worker for 20 years now working as a nanny and doing some house cleaning on occasion.
My job as a nanny is to create a stable and healthy environment for the children I care for. This work requires a lot of responsibility and care because a child’s upbringing is in my hands. I like to provide emotional stability, good communication, and care for the health and safety of the children I nanny for.
I have been employed with one particular family for 16 years now and the mother of the family, my employer, is a doctor. I started my job as a nanny when the children were newborns. Now the children are adolescents and I spend my time maintaining order and doing a little cleaning – I am no longer looking after them day to day like when they were little children. A nanny’s work is like that, it can span a lifetime, but is not always long-term.
I leave my house at 4:30 in the morning to take the first of three buses to work from the San Fernando Valley to Redondo Beach. This has been my route for the 16 years I have worked with this family, even during the pandemic. During the peak of the COVID pandemic I did not stop working.
Although my employer worked in the health sector, she never told me that I could get a vaccine or provided me with gloves or personal protective equipment. She also didn’t know how to tell me: you know what, maybe don’t come into work during this time for the sake of everyone’s health – and I’m going to pay you.
I was forced to continue working to support myself. Sadly, I knew of other domestic workers like me who lost their lives during this time. I did what I could to get some money together to buy myself hand sanitizer, gloves, face masks, and PPE to protect myself at work. Every morning when I left my house, I’d tell God please not me. I am not young and I knew I was at greater risk because of my age.
I got sick with COVID three times.
I notified my employer, and she told me that when the doctor cleared me I could return to work. During that time she didn’t call to see how I was doing or if I was recovering. I spent a month without work and it took a toll on my mental health because I had rent, food, and bills to pay.
The lack of consideration hurt a lot. The love, affection, and care that I dedicated as a nanny was not reciprocated. The work I do makes it possible for my employers to live their lives, travel, and do their work because they are assured that their children are safe with me.
We leave a lot of ourselves, a lot of years lived, in our workplaces as nannies. That is why the need for our health and safety rights is real and urgent. I am grateful for all the work that domestic worker leaders accomplished with Cal/OSHA to create the first health and safety guidelines for our industry. We need to be recognized and have rights like any worker in this country.
The guides will help us educate workers and employers to prevent injuries and illnesses at work. But we need them to be enforced, which is why we continue to fight until domestic workers are included in health and safety protections.
