Tom Ammiano, member of the California State Assembly, addresses the public during a march in support of domestic workers that took place in Sacramento on Feb 24. Photo Courtesy Mujeres Unidas y Activas

California may soon be the second state in the nation to institute legislation protecting domestic workers.

The State Assembly is considering AB 889, the California Domestic Workers Bill of Rights authored by Tom Ammiano and V. Manuel Perez. The bill would regulate the hours, working conditions and wages of domestic workers.

This legislation would require all domestic work employers to secure the payment of workers’ compensation for injuries incurred on the job, and provide legal avenues for domestic workers to file complaints against employers.

In 2010, New York legislators approved the first piece of legislation protecting domestic workers. The New York version—also called the Domestic Workers Bill of Rights—created a special cause of action for employees who suffer racial or sexual harassment.

“The Domestic Workers Bill of Rights will be a historic advantage for domestic and agricultural workers who have been excluded from labor laws due to racism and anti-immigrant sentiment,” said Bill Shields, an AB 889 supporter and chair of Labor Studies at Community College of San Francisco.

In May, California domestic workers and other activists celebrated the one-year anniversary of the passage of the International Labor Organization Convention doctrine on Decent Work for Domestic Workers, which called for similar protections and rights internationally.

“It will be a really great help to many of the women that we work with because our base is made up of a lot of domestic workers,” said Ariana Gil-Nafarrate, an AB 889 advocate and member of grassroots Latina immigrant organization, Mujeres Unidas y Activas. “Since they don’t have labor laws to protect them they run a high risk of being abused in their jobs.”

She added: “We have a lot of members who will get paid with fraudulent checks, don’t get paid overtime or work all day in a home and not be allowed to cook their own food or take a rest break, so this legislation will give these workers protections that other workers have had for many years.”

According to a 2007 study by Mujeres Unidas, 93 percent of domestic workers were unable to pay basic living expenses and 16 percent of domestic workers were not paid at all or paid with bad checks.

Veronica, a domestic worker who asked that her last name be withheld, recounted several stories about unfair treatment she received on the job. She described a situation where she and her co-workers cleaned up to 10 houses per day at $10 per house, leaving each worker with $80-$100 for a day’s work, while the individual who merely brokered the services made $1,200-$2,000 a day.

Veronica also said a friend of hers, who was a live-in domestic worker in an Atherton mansion, was forced to work for practically 24 hours a day—cleaning the house, taking care of children, washing dishes and other light chores for roughly $1,000 per month.

Historically, there have been various attempts to protect workers. The National Labor Relations Act of 1935 established the basic labor rights most workers have today.

However, due to the racism of the times, many legislators would not vote for the legislation unless agricultural and domestic workers were dropped from the categories of protected laborers. This exclusion, left domestic and agricultural workers who were and still are often people of color and women, vulnerable to abuse at the hands of their employers.