LEGISLATIVE GAZETTE

By MARIA BRANDECKER
Legislative Gazette Staff Writer

A multi-cultural gathering of advocates for the rights of domestic workers and farm workers rallied outside the Capitol May 20 chanting “sí se puede” or “yes, we can” urging the Legislature to pass the Domestic Workers’ Bill of Rights and the Farmworkers Fair Labor Practices Act.

Advocates held signs that read “Exclusion=Racism,” “Justice is Long Overdue,” “Equal Rights For All Workers,” and “Respect Our Mamas,” while recounting personal stories of injustice and abuse they experienced as farm and domestic workers.

“Those who work in the shadows and in the sunlight to keep food on our tables, to send the rest of us off to work every morning, confident that our homes and our children are being cared for, we depend on the farm workers and the domestic workers of New York and we want them to know they can depend on us,” said John Sweeney, president of the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations.

According to the Domestic Workers United, a group which represents more than 10,000 domestic workers from the United States, Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean who are New York state residents, currently one-third of all domestic workers face some form of abuse from their employers and most do not receive paid vacations or holidays, health insurance, wage adjustments based on an increase in the cost of living or paid sick days. The advocates said domestic workers also cannot join labor unions.

“The time has come to reverse the legacy of protecting the rights of some workers in our society while not protecting the rights of other workers,” Sweeney said. “The time has come to recognize the contributions of the workers in our fields and in our homes and to provide them with pay and benefits that measure up to these contributions.”

Legislation (A.628b) sponsored by Assemblyman Keith L.T. Wright, D-Manhattan, and a very similar bill (S.5235) sponsored by the Senate Rules Committee, chaired by Senate Majority Leader Joseph L. Bruno, would establish a Domestic Workers Bill of Rights to provide basic labor rights and protection for the more than 200,000 domestic workers in the greater metropolitan area of New York.

Under bill A.628b, every employer would be required to provide each domestic worker with health benefits or supplement his or her hourly wage rate by an amount no less than the lowest available cost of health benefits, provide each domestic worker an annual cost of living adjustment, include a day of rest, paid time off, termination notice and severance pay.

The bill justification states that domestic workers are among the most oppressed workers in the United States, and they are often abused, mistreated and work under harsh conditions. According to the legislation, domestic workers are regularly forced by employers to work six days a week and receive little or no pay for their services.

“Everyone that goes to work in the morning deserves equal rights, everyone deserves to have a voice in the work place and everyone deserves to be able to join a union,” said New York State American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations President Denis Hughes.

The Assembly bill was amended on, and resubmitted to the Labor Committee, on April 14. The Senate bill was referred to the Labor Committee on Jan 9.

The Farmworkers Fair Labor Practices Act, bill (A.07528/ S.3884) sponsored by Assemblywoman Catherine Nolan, D-Ridgewood, and Sen. John J. Flanagan, R,C,I-Smithtown, would provide protection for farm workers under workers’ compensation, unemployment compensation, state disability, wage, hour and public health laws.

Specifically, the bill would grant farm laborers collective bargaining rights, require their employers to allow at least 24 consecutive hours of rest each week, provide for an 8 hour work day, require overtime rate at one and one-half times normal rate, provide a sanitary code which would apply to all farm and food processing labor camps intended to house migrant workers, provide for the eligibility of workers compensation benefits and require reporting of injuries to employers, among other things.

“I’m a senator from Long Island but I’m no different than anyone here,” Flanagan said. “I want the same things that you want, I want fairness, I want dignity, I want respect and I want opportunity for you and for me and for everyone else.”

The justification of the bill states that farmworkers perform necessary, arduous labor and are entitled to the same workplace protections as other workers.

The Assembly bill was advanced on March 20 and the Senate bill was referred to the Labor Committee on Jan 9.

Sweeney said these two pieces of legislation are as economically attractive as they are morally compelling and will help the economy of New York because the workers will have more money to spend and save, and as a result, depend less on taxpayer subsidies.

Chair of the Assembly Labor Committee Susan John, D-Rochester, said she will stand “shoulder to shoulder,” with the advocates in order to restore dignity in the workplace for all workers.