NY Capitol Building in Albany
The New York State Senate passed a Domestic Worker Bill of Rights that would guarantee certain workforce protections to thousands of workers who are employed as nannies, housekeepers, or companions to the elderly.
The protections include:
- paid holidays
- sick days
- vacation days
- overtime pay at time and a half of the base wage
The bill would also require 14 days notice of termination unless the worker had committed assault, neglect, or abuse in the workplace.
The New York State Senate passed the bill sponsored by Senator Diane Savino (D, Brooklyn and Staten Island) on a vote of 33 to 28. Although the New York State Assembly passed similar legislation in 2008, that house hasn’t reintroduced its bill in this legislative session.
Were the legislation to pass both houses of the legislature and be signed by the Governor, New York would become the first state to legislate protection for domestic workers.
Many Workers Would Not Be Covered
Although the bill is broad in its provisions for employees, those workers who are employed by an agency or who are under a collective-bargaining agreement would not be covered, leaving thousands of direct-care workers in New York outside of its protections.
Furthermore, the legislation states that “domestic worker” does not include any individual who is engaged in providing “companionship services” as currently defined by the regulations for the federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). This provision further weakens the potential for the bill to protect direct-care workers in home care.
Nonetheless, a June 6 New York Times editorial refers to the bill’s passage as “progress,” especially in light of “pleas for justice [for home health aides] having been soundly rejected by the Labor Department and the Supreme Court.”
In a letter to the editor published in The New York Times on June 10, PHI President Steven Dawson “commends the New York State Senate,” but calls for a revision to the “companionship exemption” in the federal Fair Labor Standards Act.
