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Being able to step away from your job to eat lunch or being able to have an uninterrupted night of sleep after having worked a 14 hour day might seem like basic rights that any worker in the United States would have. However, 200,000 domestic workers like nannies, housekeepers and home health aides in California do not have these basic labor protections.

Now, the Domestic Bill of Rights or AB 899, drafted by Democratic Assemblyman Tom Ammiano would finally offer basic labor protections to these workers. The bill moved closer to becoming law last Thursday when the California State Assembly passed the bill in a 42 to 27 vote. Of the 2.5 million domestic workers around the country only those working in New York State are offered any kind of labor protections. New York passed a Domestic Worker Bill of Rights in 2010. The California bill would offer domestic workers similar basic rights as uninterrupted sleep, meal breaks and overtime pay. The bill exempts family members who work at home as well as babysitters under the age of 18.

Internationally, only two countries in the world, Uruguay and the Philippines, have established any kind of protections at a federal level for their domestic workers. It was only this year that both countries ratified a treaty drafted by the International Labour Organization called the Convention on Domestic Workers. The Convention on Domestic Workers protects not only those who are abused by employers in their home country, but also covers migrant domestic workers who are sometimes subject to abuse and unpaid wages in the countries where they are working. The United States is yet to provide any safeguards for domestic workers on a nation wide basis.

GUEST: Aquilina Soriano-Versoza, Executive Director of the Southern California based Pilipino Workers Center

Visit www.domesticworkers.org for more information.