New York State Enacts the Domestic Workers Bill of Rights
On August 31, 2010 Governor Patterson signed into law the New York Domestic Workers’ Bill of Rights, which sets out the responsibility of all employers to provide certain paid and unpaid days of rest to domestic workers, and also provides for the protection of domestic workers against unwelcome sexual advances, hostile sexual environment or harassment based on gender, race, religion or national origin. This legislation is significant because it affects individual households that employ domestic workers and will, for the first time, subject those households to potential liability for unlawful harassment as well as for not observing the maximum hours and overtime pay requirements of the new law.