Local Advocacy Group Helps Push for Domestic Workers’ Rights

Patricia Aceberos, 59, worked six days straight as an in-home caregiver for eight years, often only sleeping three hours a night. Her patient was an elderly woman with dementia and Parkinson’s disease who required 24-hour care, she said.

“I didn’t have enough breaks, or enough rest because I had to get up at 9 p.m. and at 1 a.m. to give her medication,” Aceberos said. “When you get up at 1 a.m., it’s hard to go to sleep. And then I have to get up again at 6 a.m.”

Aceberos, an immigrant from the Philippines with four children, said she worked this cycle for only $6 an hour and with few basic rights. She never received overtime pay and wasn’t even allowed to cook her own food, let alone get a full night’s rest.

It wasn’t until she injured herself two years ago while tending to her patient that Aceberos realized how bad the work conditions were for her and many like her.

“The industry is something that has been unregulated. As a result, workers in this industry are faced with abuse and are particularly vulnerable because they work isolated in private homes and are excluded from very basic labor protection,” said Katie Joaquin, who leads the ’s Homecare Worker Project.

The Union City-based organization is one of many in the Bay Area helping to push for domestic workers’ rights across the state.

According to FAJ, there are more than 200,000 housekeepers, nannies and caregivers in California who are subject to unfair regulations.

Domestic workers, advocacy groups and some employers are hoping a new Assembly bill will help correct some of these wrongs.

AB 889, the Domestic Worker Bill of Rights sponsored by Rep. Tom Ammiano and Rep. Manuel Perez, will be presented for the first time in Sacramento on Wednesday in front of the Assembly Labor Committee. FAJ is assembling a 150-person caravan to the Capitol in support of the bill.

The bill would protect all domestic workers who work in private homes, including nannies, housecleaners, caregivers and maids, whether hired through an agency or by an individual employer. It will, however, exclude In-Home Support Services members, close family members and babysitters under the age of 18.

The new bill would set rigid guidelines for employment. Currently, the rules are complex for domestic workers, Joaquin said.

According to a California Domestic Workers Coalition fact sheet, housecleaners are entitled to overtime pay, but domestic workers who are classified as personal attendants who spend more than 80 percent of their time caring for children, the disabled or the elderly have no right to overtime pay.

With AB 889, all domestic workers would be entitled to the same equal protections that all workers have. Among the actions, the new bill calls for basic guidelines for wages, breaks, overtime, vacation and paid sick days. In-home caregivers like Aceberos would be guaranteed a full eight hours of uninterrupted sleep.

“These are basic human rights,” Joaquin said.

Aceberos herself has been a key figure in the local movement for domestic workers’ rights. She leads workshops for through FAJ’s Homecare Worker Project, teaching others how to properly care not only for their patients, but also for themselves.

“This job is hard for the patient and it’s hard for the caregiver,” Aceberos said. “When you work in a care home, sometimes you’re working one-on-one, sometimes you’re working [with] four patients in a care home by yourself.”

The issue of domestic workers’ rights has been an important one particularly for California immigrants, Joaquin said. Though the movement has largely been advanced by Latino advocacy groups in the Bay Area, the issue has also been a key concern for Filipino immigrants, Joaquin said.

Through the Philippine government’s labor export policy, many Filipino men and women have been trained to work in the domestic work industry, Joaquin said.

“There’s a growing demand in the U.S. for caregivers because of the baby boomers reaching their elderly years,” Joaquin said. “The Philippine government knows this and works to meet the demands of the elderly by exporting labor to fulfill those needs. There are companies that go straight to the Philippines because they’re a source of cheap labor.”

According to a 2007 study by Oakland-based research group DataCenter and San Francisco immigrant rights group Mujeres Unidas y Activas, 57 percent of domestic workers in California were the primary income earners for their families, local and abroad.

Across the globe, Filipinos working overseas sent home a total of $1.476 billion in the month of January alone, according to an article in the Philippine Star.

“For Filipinos, this is such an important industry for us to be looking at and a sector of our community we should be supporting,” Joaquin said.

Joaquin is confident the bill of rights will pass in May and be signed into law in September, based on the national and international momentum of the movement.

Last year, New York passed its version of a domestic worker bill of rights. The National Domestic Workers Alliance and the International Labor Organization are also advocating this issue.

The issue may be of particular interested to Gov. Jerry Brown, Joaquin said. Brown’s opponent for the governor’s seat, Meg Whitman, had her campaign rocked by allegations of abuse from a former housekeeper.

“This is the time for Gov. Jerry Brown to swear in rights that [the other] gubernatorial candidate put aside,” Joaquin said.