The State of New York just passed a new employment and labor law called the Domestic Workers' Bill of Rights. The first of its kind in the nation, the law officially applies for the first time typical workplace protections to domestic employees such as housekeepers, caretakers, nannies, cooks, personal care assistants, and gardeners.

Because many anti-discrimination laws only apply to employers of a certain size, household workers who were hired directly have been vulnerable to abuse and exploitation. The new law in New York provides legal protection for domestic workers' rights in a state where an estimated 8 percent of all such workers in the U.S. are employed.

The Domestic Workers' Bill of Rights guarantees most domestic workers protections including a minimum wage, overtime pay, at least one day off per week and three paid days off per year. It expands employers' responsibility to provide workers' compensation and short-term disability coverage to part-time workers and opens up the possibility of union organization. It also includes changes to sexual harassment law and prohibits discrimination and harassment based on sex, race, national origin and religion.

What New Protections Against Discrimination and Harassment Does New York Law Provide?

The new law adds a provision to the New York State Human Rights Law that will specifically protect domestic workers. Before the new law, a household employer had to have at least four employees before the Human Rights Law would apply. The new law eliminates that requirement.

The provision offers legal protection to household workers from employment discrimination or harassment based on gender, race, national origin or religion. That includes sexual harassment, which includes "unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, or other verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature."

These changes to the sexual harassment law do leave some thorny issues open to question, because behavior that might be clearly inappropriate in a standard workplace may be more acceptable in a private home.

For example, pop star Britney Spears currently faces a sexual harassment lawsuit from a former bodyguard. His claim is that Spears harassed him by walking around her home naked, exposing herself to him and having sex in front of him. Claims that people's immodest behavior in their own homes could constitute sexual harassment are highly unusual, but with New York's changes to sexual harassment law in the area of domestic work, they could become more common.

The Domestic Workers' Bill of Rights was signed into law on August 31 and will take effect on November 29, 2010.

Source:

"New York law hits home with nation's first domestic workers' bill of rights" (Lexology, September 17, 2010)