Pinoys in California Welcome Law Granting OT Protection to Maids

Image Caption: Photo from Pilipino Workers Center’s Facebook page

The Filipino-American community in California welcomed the signing of the new law guaranteeing permanent overtime protections to privately hired domestic workers in the state.

A report on NBC News said Fil-Am groups pushed for Senate Bill 1015, a legislation eliminating a clause in the Domestic Worker Bill of Rights that would have led overtime protection to expire in 2017.

“By eliminating the original sunset date on AB 241, SB 1015 will make sure that domestic workers in California continue to receive a fair wage with overtime for their daily hard work,” Sen. Connie Levya (D-Chino Hills), the author of the bill, said in a statement.

Filipino Community Center program manager Marienne Cuison said the law, signed recently by Gov. Jerry Brown, would benefit domestic workers and caregivers who have to “take on multiple jobs to just make ends meet.”

Aquilina Soriano-Versoza, Pilipino Workers Center executive director, said the elimination of the clause “validates the dignity of the work that [Filipinos] are doing” and would help Filipinos get better compensation.

SB 1015 will take effect on Jan. 1, 2017, the date the overtime protection would have expired.

The Domestic Worker Bill of Rights was approved in 2013 and gave personal attendants overtime pay for “any hours worked over nine (9) hours per day or over 45 hours per week”.

A report on LA Times said Brown also signed Assembly Bill 1066, authored by Assemblywoman Lorena S. Gonzalez (D-San Diego), expanding overtime pay for California farmworkers beginning in 2019, lowers the current 10-hour-day by half-hour increments until it reaches the standard eight hours by 2022, and would phase in a 40-hour standard workweek. —Rie Takumi/KBK, GMA News

(Source: GMAnetwork.com)