The stories below are just a few examples of why domestic workers need the Bill of Rights. These profiles, highlighting domestic workers unique vulnerability to abuse and exploitation, are sent each week to legislators in Albany.

Our stories describe what it means to be excluded from the basic legal protections guaranteed to other workers. We work alone, isolated in our employers’ houses. We often get no time off, even to deal with medical emergencies. We keep New York families healthy and functioning, but the precarious nature of our jobs keeps our own families in crisis. With the economic downturn, that crisis has deepened.

MARINA:
Marina was paid just an hour, and made to sleep in a basement filled with sewage. Then Marina’s employers fired her without notice, and she became homeless overnight: “I found work in a house, caring for a disabled youth. I ended up doing everything – the housecleaning, the ironing, the food… Read more

LOU:
As the money Lou’s employer owed her accumulated, what began as a good employment relationship turned abusive: “The beginning of my experience as nanny/housekeeper for my employer was a good one… Read more

CAROLYN:
Carolyn was a live-in nanny for caring for three small children. She worked round the clock, got no holidays, and was forced back to work soon after breast cancer surgery. Her job ended with her boss beating her and hurling racist slurs: “I worked all day and into the night. Most nights I would get three to four hours of sleep. I was never given holidays because my employers said I was not an American so the holidays were not for me... Read more

HEALTHCARE ISSUES:
Domestic workers are forced to work through illnesses, struggle to make it to doctors’ appointments, and get stuck with medical bills from workplace injuries: Freda’s story: “One day, I got sick. I was sweating and shivering, and I fell on the couch. I needed to go home, but she said, “Freda, I have a meeting, take two Tylenols.” Domestic workers are not supposed to get sick, you’re not supposed to take time off…Read more

ELIZABETH:
When a person goes to work in someone’s house, she doesn’t know what she’ll find: “I worked with a family in Manhattan for three consecutive years. The second day on the job, the employer started in on me… Read more

TATI:
Tati was forced to sleep in an unheated basement, denied food, and suffered serious emotional distress due to her employers’ dehumanizing treatment: “In my case, I have had good, considerate employers but in these years I have also experienced difficulties which I never thought I would have to endure. They’ve made me sleep in a basement with no heat in the dead of winter… Read more