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Recognizing the contributions of nannies, house cleaners, care workers, and other domestic workers whose work holds up Philadelphia’s communities and households by declaring June 16, 2019 as International Domestic Workers Day in the City of Philadelphia.
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WHEREAS, Everyday, domestic workers care for the elderly, assist people with disabilities, clean homes, and nurture children, thus freeing up the time and attention of millions of other working families; and
WHEREAS, Domestic work is routinely undervalued and overlooked, casting domestic workers into the shadows and making their needs invisible; and
WHEREAS, The average annual income for Domestic Workers in the City of Philadelphia was $10,000 annually per a report issued by Pilar Goñalons-Pons, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania. Most Domestic Workers are women of color and immigrant women who live paycheck to paycheck; and
WHEREAS, In 2016, throughout the City of Philadelphia there were over 16,000+ Domestic Workers including nannies, house cleaners, home care workers, gardeners and cooks in the Metropolitan Area; and
WHEREAS, In the U.S. domestic workers were intentionally excluded from the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) as a concession to Southern politicians in the early 1900’s; and
WHEREAS, This exclusion was mirrored on the state level, creating an unregulated and underground economy that left domestic workers subject to widespread mistreatment and abuse in the U.S.; and
WHEREAS, Without laws to regulate behavior and policies, domestic workers are vulnerable to rampant exploitation including wage theft, sexual harassment and abuse, and discrimination; and
WHEREAS, Domestic workers often have to rely on the good graces of potential employers rather than expect industry standards and practices to protect them; and
WHEREAS, International Domestic Workers Day, June 16, celebrates the 2011 passage of the International Labor Organization Convention 189 for Decent Work for Domestic Workers; and
WHEREAS, In 2010 and 2011 domestic workers from around the world came together to fight to establish the first global standards for the estimated 50 to 100 million domestic workers worldwide; and
WHEREAS, Providing domestic workers with protections equivalent to those available to other workers addresses historic discrimination and frequent exclusion from labor laws for the domestic work sector, and promises better working conditions and better lives; and
WHEREAS, Government at all levels in across the world have a responsibility to review their labor laws and reform them as necessary to bring them into line with the convention and recommendation; and
WHEREAS, Governments must act powerfully to protect domestic workers from violence and abuse, including educating and holding accountable domestic employers to compliance with the law, regulating intermediaries that recruit and facilitate employment such as private employment agencies and gig-app platform companies, and preventing child labor and labor trafficking in domestic work; and
WHEREAS, After winning the International Labor Organization Convention 189, domestic workers have continued on with building the International Domestic Workers Federation: a strong, democratic and united domestic workers global organization to protect and advance domestic workers’ rights everywhere; and
WHEREAS, In just nine years between 2010 to present, nine states and one municipality have passed Domestic Workers’ Bills of Rights in the U.S. representing a historic step forward for domestic work being recognized as real work and establishing labor protections; and
WHEREAS, Domestic workers have an inherent right to be able to demand more from their industry and be able to engage in dialoguing with employers and government to determine fair standards that honors their humanity; and
WHEREAS, Philadelphia seeks a Philadelphia Domestic Workers Bill of Rights to advance dignity, safety, and justice at work for Philadelphia’s 16,000 domestic workers; now, therefore, be it
RESOLVED, BY THE CITY COUNCIL OF PHILADELPHIA, That it declares June 16, 2019 as International Domestic Workers Day in the City of Philadelphia in honor of the contributions Philadelphia domestic workers to many individuals and families who benefit from their labor and care, and the powerful organizing domestic workers have coordinated globally to set international standards.
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, That a copy of this resolution, suitably Engrossed, be
presented to the Pennsylvania Domestic Workers Alliance and its worker members in the City of Philadelphia.
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