Catherwood LibraryILR School

At a meeting being organized by Domestic Workers United (DWU), New York City Council members will hear testimony this Saturday from domestic workers---mainly immigrant women---about wage and employment abuses they have suffered at the hands of their employers. The recently formed coalition group is pushing for fundamental labor rights for nannies, maids and personnel care attendants, and is one of the driving forces behind a bill introduced in the City Council last week to require domestic worker employment agencies to inform employers of their responsibility to obey wage, overtime and other employment laws. Many of the workers that DWU seeks to protect are undocumented immigrants who are too afraid of being deported to complain when their rights are violated---even in cases as outrageous as that of a San Salvadoran woman who was locked in a basement every night by her employer.