New law brings protections most Americans enjoy to historically oppressed, invisible industry
In a city where everyone's out to make a buck, it's easy to run a sweatshop from the privacy of your own home. In fact, you'll find some of New York's most abused workers in the country not on a shop floor, but in a kitchen on the Upper West Side or a kid's bedroom in Chelsea... the hidden crevices of the urban economy that operate outside the law.
But well-off households across the state might soon get shaken up with the passage of a bill decades in the making. The Domestic Workers Bill of Rights, just approved by the New York State Senate, gives nannies, housekeepers and other caregivers basic rights and safeguards against employer abuses.
The provisions, which could impact some 200,000 workers, include overtime pay, vacation days, medical leave, advance notice of termination, and one precious day off each week. The last step is to reconcile the bill with a somewhat weaker version already passed by the Assembly and send it on for Gov. David Paterson's signature.
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