Nannies, maids, caregivers call for bill of rights

Two days after Mayor Julián Castro touted a thriving, business-friendly San Antonio during his 2013 State of the City address, a small group gathered on the steps of City Hall to advocate for domestic workers, a layer of the labor force they say lacks basic wage and work-hour protections.

The Southwest Workers Union's Domestic Workers in Action group wants the city to adopt a “San Antonio Domestic Worker Bill of Rights,” which would provide nannies, maids and home care providers the ability to negotiate salaries and workloads. It also would give workers the right to take meals and breaks, to be eligible for workers' compensation and to receive sick time.

If the city did so, it would be following the lead of New York state, which in 2010 became the first place in the nation to pass such a code.

Castro was traveling and could not immediately be reached for comment.

“They are a very important part of the workforce because they do help our economy,” Irasema Cavazos of the Southwest Workers Union said Thursday. “They free up a lot of people to get out and practice their profession. Their children are taken care of. Their homes, when they come back, they're clean and comfortable. If they have elderly parents that need care, someone is taking care of them.”

The initiative stems from a survey conducted in San Antonio and 13 other cities last year by the National Domestic Workers Alliance.

The survey was conducted in nine languages and answered by 2,086 nannies, caregivers and housekeepers. Of the respondents, 23 percent said they were paid below their state's minimum wage, 30 percent reported working without a written contract and 23 percent reported being fired from a job for complaining about working conditions.

Members of the local Southwest Workers Union in San Antonio helped with distribution of the survey, fanning out to bus stops, breakfast shops and city parks to get the survey to local domestic workers. Locally, the biggest complaints were of substandard wages and little to no time off, the group said.

lbrezosky@express-news.net