“This is a last-minute bill, tweaked and amended, leaving little time for legislative review and public participation, it has been shamelessly hijacked and hastily passed to score political points with Hollywood writers and actors on strike,” he said. “The governor’s veto was the right thing to do, but it only puts the pause button on a crisis that must end.”
State Sen. Anthony Portantinothe Burbank Democrat who wrote the bill, published on social networks that he was disappointed by the veto, but “the need persists, as do the efforts to pass this law in California.”
Domestic work without safety rules
Another labor measure that Newsom blocked Saturday would have removed a exemption for domestic workers of Cal/OSHA Occupational Health and Safety Rules. The bill would have required anyone employing domestic staff to follow the same health and safety rules as businesses by January 2025.
Newsom said that under the bill, if a family employer violates a workplace safety rule, it could face the same penalties as businesses, up to $15,000 per violation. He added that 44% of households that employ domestic workers have low incomes.
“New laws in this area must recognize that private households and families cannot be regulated in exactly the same way as traditional businesses,” he wrote. in his veto message.
The bill, he said, does not specify standards that employers must follow or a system to investigate and enforce those standards.
Supporters of the measure said the exemption of domestic workers from safety and health protections began with slavery and persists through sexism and racism. They also note that three-quarters of California’s approximately 300,000 domestic workers are immigrant women of color.
“We expected more from this governor. Domestic workers deserve more,” Kimberly Alvarenga, director of the California Domestic Workers Coalition, said in a statement.
“We will not back down from this fight. We are proud to stand with domestic workers, employers and leaders across the country who understand that it is long past time to act to right this historic wrong. We continue the legacy of generations of women of color before us who fought for equality and dignity in their work.
During California wildfires, some domestic workers were asked to stay and guard their belongings, care for pets, work in smoky conditions and clean up toxic ash, according to an analysis of the bill . Some workers were not informed when the home they were working in was in an evacuation zone.
State Sen. Maria Elena Durazothe Los Angeles Democrat who authored the bill, said in a tweet: “I am deeply disappointed that the Governor does not recognize the inherent value and dignity of these women who care for our homes and families . »
Advances in security
In 2020, Newsom vetoed a similar measure. Since then, a statewide advisory committee has created voluntary workplace safety standards and recommended that domestic workers be included in Cal/OSHA rules.
Newsom said the committee also discussed giving domestic employers the opportunity to learn about violations and correct them before formal enforcement is made.
Along the same lines, unions representing retail and grocery workers managed to score a victory on workplace safety.
Newsom signed a bill that will require employers to implement “basic protections” to help protect workers from workplace violence, including developing a workplace violence prevention plan, recording any incidents violent and providing training on workplace violence prevention, the United Food and Commercial Workers said. Council of Western States.
The syndicate statement said most of its members have experienced workplace violence or threats of violence.
“Members were robbed at gunpoint; they were physically attacked, some to the point of having to be hospitalized; people infected with COVID-19 spat on them; they are regularly threatened with violence; and in some stores, members have even been murdered while carrying out their work,” the union said.
John Frahm, interim president of UFCW Local 5, said the bill will have an “extraordinary impact” on the lives of workers.
“UFCW members have had to deal with six years of deadly and traumatic incidents,” he said. “It simply takes too much time when our members go to work each day wondering if they will make it home to their families in the evening.”
Newsom has worked on about 900 bills and has until Oct. 14 to sign or veto them. Parliament can override a veto, but it requires a two-thirds majority in the Assembly and Senate.
This story has been updated to include reaction from the California Domestic Workers Coalition.