Introducing . . . D.C.’s Domestic Worker Bill of Rights!!

This morning, Tuesday, March 15th, the Domestic Worker Employment Rights Amendment Act of 2022 was introduced in the D.C. Council by Councilmember Elissa Silverman! The bill was co-sponsored by nine councilmembers: Silverman, Henderson, Lewis-George, Allen, White, Nadeau, Pinto, McDuffie, and Bonds. In her comments at the press conference this morning, Councilmember Silverman, Chair of the Committee on Labor and Workforce Development, said she was committed to seeing the bill through to its passage before the current council session ends, at the end of 2022.

First Shift Justice Project first brought the issue of domestic workers to the attention of the D.C. Council in 2017, after representing a nanny who had been fired by the family she worked for after becoming pregnant. We were appalled to discover that, unlike all other private sector workers in D.C., she and other domestic workers have no protection from discrimination or harassment under D.C.’s Human Rights Act. Since then, First Shift has worked with the local chapter of the National Domestic Workers Alliance; Hand-in-Hand: The Domestic Worker Employers Network; and the Metropolitan Washington Employment Lawyers Association, among others, to advocate for changes in D.C. law that will allow housecleaners, nannies, in-home caregivers for elderly and disabled people, and other household workers to be treated the same as other workers under the law.

The bill that was introduced today is a stronger version of a previous bill that was introduced in 2019. In addition to protecting D.C. domestic workers from discrimination and harassment by including them under the coverage of the D.C. Human Rights Act, the proposed legislation aims to eliminate their exclusion from the D.C. Occupational Safety and Health law. It will also require household employers to have a contract with a domestic worker whom they employ for more than five hours per week.

 First Shift will continue to actively advocate for the passage of this law – stay tuned! Si, se puede!