A new documentary from the will premiere on PBS stations beginning Saturday (Jan. 14).
follows domestic workers in California as they organize for job protections during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Viewers in the greater Sacramento area can watch the broadcast at 10:30 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 19, on KVIE. It is also available for .
鈥淒omestic workers lack virtually any protections from arbitrary and unsafe working conditions,鈥 said , a professor of public health sciences and director of the Environmental Health Sciences Center. 鈥淭his film highlights their struggle to achieve dignity, respect, and safe and humane working environments before and throughout the unprecedented COVID public health crisis.鈥
Hertz-Picciotto is the executive producer for the film. Jennifer Biddle, digital strategist at the Environmental Health Sciences Center, is the producer. , an award-winning filmmaker and journalist, directed the documentary.
Dignidad is the second film for the team. Their previous documentary, , premiered on PBS in 2019. Since then, it has been presented more than 300 times on 160 PBS stations and is currently available on 鈥.
Kim Alvarenga, director of the , and domestic workers Mirna Arana and Rock Delgado are featured in the new film.
Arana fled deadly gang violence in Guatemala and resettled in California. She started working as a cleaner, where she experienced wage theft, and is now an activist with . Delgado, a caregiver in Los Angeles, survived a severe bout of COVID-19 after being exposed on the job. He鈥檚 now an activist with the .
Their stories illustrate the struggles many domestic workers face in California. Domestic workers are predominantly female and people of color. Many are new immigrants. Laboring in other people鈥檚 homes often includes risks such as unsafe working conditions, exceedingly long hours, wage theft and other forms of abuse.
Exclusion from CalOSHA
The California Division of Occupational Safety and Health, known as , is responsible for related to workplace safety. In 2020, during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, the California Legislature passed Senate Bill 1257 to extend Cal/OSHA protections to domestic workers.
Gov. Gavin Newsom vetoed the bill. Newsom said: 鈥淪B 1257 would extend many employers鈥 obligations to private homeowners and renters, including the duty to create an injury prevention plan and the requirement to conduct outdoor heat trainings. Many individuals to whom this law would apply lack the expertise to comply with these regulations.鈥
Domestic workers in the state organized in response to the veto. Dignidad touches on some of the Environmental Health Sciences Center鈥檚 research findings about the vulnerabilities faced by domestic workers during the pandemic. It also chronicles domestic workers鈥 efforts to pass a revised version of SB 1257, reintroduced by , D-Los Angeles, as SB 321, the , which won the governor鈥檚 signature.
SB 321 did not fully bring domestic workers under Cal/OSHA standards, but it mandated the creation of an advisory committee comprising experts and public representatives to develop recommendations on protecting the occupational health and safety of domestic workers.
鈥淚t was heartening that after more than a century of having virtually no rights as workers, domestic employees are now recognized as needing occupational protections,鈥 Hertz-Picciotto said. 鈥淲hile this new law does not actually guarantee those protections, it is a small first step toward that goal and toward the dignity domestic workers deserve.鈥
Media Resources
Media Contacts:
- Lisa Howard, 澳门六合彩开奖结果走势图 Health, 916-752-6394, lehoward@ucdavis.edu
- Alex Mendelmar, Environmental Health Sciences Center, amendelmar@ucdavis.edu