Domestic Workers in LA Today

Over break, I saw this news story online: http://cbs3.com/sports/Kobe.Bryant.Housekeeper.2.968378.html

In short, Kobe Bryant and his wife are being sued by their former housekeeper for unsuitable working conditions and insufficient pay. Other charges also include not being covered by medical insurance when she was told she would be, being wrongly discharged, and being humiliated treated unfairly by the Bryants.

This immediately reminded me of the book that I read for my book review, Pierrette Hondagneu-Sotelo’s Doméstica: Immigrant Workers Cleaning and Caring in the Shadow of Affluence. In this book, Hondagneu-Sotelo describes the experiences of domestic workers, like the Bryant’s housekeeper, in Los Angeles. She is a big proponent of educating domestic workers about fair working conditions and being paid properly. Hondagneu-Sotelo has distributed information to domestic workers about when they would be eligible to be paid back wages if they were not paid enough by their employers during their time of employment.

I find it sad that this is only a news-worthy case because it involves a sports star, but I think it could be an important step in terms of making the public more aware of the problems that still exist in our society concerning fair labor practices. Hondagneu-Sotelo said that it is difficult to regulate domestic work because of the large number of employers and employees involved plus the fact that many of the employers do not think of themselves as employers with the responsibilities that go along with that role, for example, taking care of their employees.

I hope that this case and others like it will get more media attention, because that would be a great way for domestic workers to get their story known, and gain more rights as workers here in the United States. (Not only rights for domestic workers, but for all workers, for example the garments workers in Jen’s post about Made in LA.)