January 2014

A SOCIAL PROFILE OF BRAZILIAN

HOUSECLEANERS

IN MASSACHUSETTS

Brazilian Immigrant Center, Inc.

Brazilian Immigrant Center Inc. - University of Massachusetts Boston

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January 2014

Table of Contents

The Brazilian Immigrant Center and its Partners. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

Research Question and Hypotheses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

Methodology: A Community-Led Social Survey. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

Definitions Relevant to Understanding the Survey Population . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

Demographic Characteristics of the Sample . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

Survey Findings in Massachusetts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

Job Definition, Pay and Benefits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

General Working Conditions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

Training: Few Have Any Professional Training . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

Safety and Health Issues in the Workplace . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

Employer Mistreatment. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

Study Hypotheses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

Summary and Discussion of Key Findings. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

Limitations of the Study . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

How the Findings will be Used . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

References Cited. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

Acknowledgements. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Back Cover

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A Partnership with the University of Massachusetts Boston and The Sociological Initiatives Foundation

The Brazilian Immigrant Center is a community-based, non-profit organization, founded in 1995, that supports immigrants on matters of their workplace and civil rights. We work with the community that we are part of, through organizing, advocacy, education, leadership, capacity building, and civic participation. We join Brazilians and other immigrants in organizing against economic, social and political exclusion in order to create a more just society.

This preliminary report was prepared by Natalicia Tracy and Tim Sieber, of the Brazilian Immigrant Center, Inc., and the Departments of Sociology and Anthropology, University of Massachusetts Boston.

“One of the problems that we encounter is that we ourselves don’t think highly of what we are doing. Many of us are embarrassed at doing this work, and end up doing things that really make us angry later on for not speaking up. The changes need to start with us. We need to be proud of what we do. It’s a job. It pays our bills. It helps us take care of our families, and we need to demand that it be treated as such.”

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January 2014

Research Question and Hypotheses

Women are half of the 140,000 Brazilian immigrants currently in Massachusetts. Almost 30% work at some point as domestic servants: most are housecleaners, the major female occupation in this largest and fastest growing of the state’s foreign-born groups (Siqueira and Roche 2013). Up to 70% of Brazilians are also undocumented (Fritz 2010), and insecure immigration status traps many in domestic service, a mostly unregulated industry within the informal economy where worker exploitation is common. For today’s more working-class immigrant stream, most of whom have entered the country “uninspected” (that is, come over the border from Mexico), this is even more true than for the middle class migrants Maxine Margolis studied in the first major wave of Brazilian immigration to the US in 1980s New York (Margolis 2009).

Despite the prominence of this work for Brazilian women, only one careful study has ever been done of the work life of Brazilian housecleaners in Massachusetts (Siqueira and Roche 2013). Many Brazilian housecleaners are now playing a leadership role in the grassroots movement for domestic worker rights in Massachusetts, as well as nationally, and their work-a-day realities as housecleaners are still often overlooked when compared to other domestic workers, such as nannies and caregivers.

Our research question was: What are the working and living conditions of Brazilian housecleaners in the major Brazilian communities of Massachusetts, and what working conditions do they perceive to be the most problematic in their work life?

The survey focused on some key issues not examined before in earlier studies of Massachusetts domestic workers. Most of our key questions

arose from a one-day historic first Congress of Massachusetts Domestic Workers held in Boston on June 16, 2012, when breakout sessions for the 110 participants recorded their main complaints about their work life, for the purpose of identifying key issues for inclusion in a proposed Domestic Worker’s Bill of Rights. The strongest worker complaints were directed at the unwarranted interpersonal disrespect and depreciation they experienced from employers, often accompanied by mistreatment, exploitation, and denial of labor rights – even existing rights they are already entitled to – as well as their basic human rights. Despite the depreciation received, domestic workers believe deeply in the importance of their work, and feel pride in offering quality service as professionals in caring for their employers’ homes, families, children, and elderly.

Our main hypothesis was that workers with undocumented immigrant status are more likely to be darker in skin color, and of lower social class, than others, and secondly, that these workers are more likely to be the workers who are the most aggrieved over social and economic disrespect and exploitation in the workplace. Among Brazilian immigrants, many studies already recognize the close association between lower social class, African or mixed-race descent, and undocumented status (Fritz 2010; Margolis 2008).

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The new NDWA national survey of domestic workers, which covers 14 states and does not segregate Massachusetts data, concludes that “undocumented workers face lower wages and worse working conditions” (NDWA 2012: 31), noting a 17% “wage penalty” in terms of average compensation, and that, “race/ethnicity and immigration status appear to intersect….creating significant disadvantages for undocumented Latinas” [which include Brazilians] (NDWA 2012: 32).

The survey also assessed a variety of health-related complaints that appear to result from repetitive stress injuries and exposures to toxic chemicals in cleaning products common to housecleaners, and we hypothesize that the longer housecleaners are working in the industry, the more likely it is that they manifest occupational health problems.

Definitions Relevant to Understanding the Survey Population

A domestic worker is a person who works within their employer’s household. Domestic workers perform a variety of household services for an individual or a family, from providing care for children and elderly dependents to cleaning and household maintenance, known as housekeeping.

Housecleaners typically are live-out domestic workers who periodically visit their clients’ homes, usually weekly or bi-weekly, to clean interior domestic space. This commonly encompasses vacuuming and dusting of all living areas, scrubbing and polishing of kitchen and bathroom appliances, surfaces, and floors, and sometimes areas occupied by family pets. Since work boundaries are not well defined, and highly variable depending on employer, however, housecleaners also are often asked to do other chores that might include laundry, washing dirty dishes, changing bed linens, childcare, or running errands. Brazilian housecleaners often work in groups, whose “owner” coordinates their schedules, supervises their work, is in charge of financial relations with clients, and transports workers from site to site (up to 5 to 10 houses per day).

Methodology: A Community-Led Social Survey

Ten Domestic workers were trained at UMass Boston in survey research methods and conducted face-to-face interviews with other domestic workers across the state of Massachusetts. Surveys conducted in Portuguese. The Survey has 14 demographic questions, and another 43 on working conditions, and has generated 193 variables. The instrument and research procedures were approved by the Institutional Review Board at the University of Massachusetts, Boston.

Geographic location: areas of highest Brazilian population

1) Greater Boston, including North and South Shores; 2) MetroWest; and 3) Cape Cod (Survey respondents were residents of 54 towns and cities in Massachusetts)

Sampling: Convenience and snowball sampling within specific MA geographic areas, involving only house cleaners

Target number of Surveys: 200 Number completed: 198

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Brazilian women currently or formerly working as housecleaners at training session in survey research methods, with Project Director and trainer Natalicia Tracy (at center of photo in black jacket), at the Sociology Department of the University of Massachusetts Boston, March 2013. The training, the research instrument, and face-to-face interviews of respondents were all done in Portuguese. (Photo Andrea Gouveia Roche)

Ten current or former Brazilian housecleaners were trained at UMass Boston in an all-day session in March 2013, and worked as field surveyors in the project, administering the survey through face-to-face interviews of other domestic workers in representative areas across the state of Massachusetts. The goal was 200 respondents, reached through a combination of snowball and convenience sampling, and distributed through the three key geographic zones in Massachusetts where significant Brazilian populations reside: 1) Greater Boston, including North and South Shores; 2) MetroWest; and 3) Cape Cod. In all, this zone covers 48 towns and cities. Respondents needed to be 18 years of age or older, have worked as a housecleaner in the previous month, and live in Massachusetts.

The interviews and the survey instrument were in Portuguese. Field work took place between May and September 2013. The survey was developed drawing on the instrument used in the 2012 National Domestic Workers Alliance national survey, in which a few of our surveyors had also been field researchers; the 2005 domestic worker survey instrument used by the Collaboration for Better Work Environments for Brazilians (COBWEB) project; and, in some questions in response to concerns expressed by domestic workers at Brazilian Immigrant Center organizing meetings during 2010-2012. The survey instrument was piloted at domestic worker meetings at the Brazilian Immigrant Center, and later refined. In all, the 59-item survey contained 3 screening questions, 11 demographic questions, and another 45 questions on working conditions. Five questions frequently elicited qualitative comments by respondents, which were recorded. The survey took 30-45 minutes to administer, was administered in face-to-face encounters with respondents, and has generated 193 variables for analysis. A total of 198 valid surveys were completed, and the resulting data were analyzed using SPSS Software version 20.0 for descriptive and comparative statistics.

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Demographic Characteristics of the Sample

In age Brazilian housecleaners display a profile similar to other workers in their ethnic community, and to what has been found more widely for other Latin American immigrants: they are a young adult group in their prime working and child-bearing years. Over half (56%) were under 40 years of age. More than a quarter were in their 40’s, and 15% fifty or older.

The respondents were all women, reflecting most other documentation that the domestic labor workforce is nearly all female. Although husbands occasionally accompany their wives as partners in doing the work, there were no such instances among our respondents.

In marital status, two thirds of the sample (66%) reported being married or cohabiting, and the other third were a combination of single at 17%, 9% divorced, 6% separated, or 2% widowed. Most were supporting other family members with their pay, presumably many of these children of the women, mostly in their prime childbearing years.

They are a moderately well educated group. Almost half (47%) are secondary school graduates, and more than a quarter (27%) had completed a college degree before migrating to the US. Another 27% were less well educated, having completed middle school or less in Brazil.

As recent immigrants, this was a population not very well schooled in English. About half (51.5%) said they “understand” English well or very well, and the remainder assessed their understanding as “fair” or “poor,” but many fewer rated themselves as high on reading or writing ability. Almost two in five, or 39.4%, said their reading ability was poor, and only a third termed it “good” or “very good.” In speaking, more than a quarter (27.8%) evaluated their ability as poor, and only 38.4% as good or very good.

As regards racial identification, most situated themselves within US racial terminology, inflected with Brazilian understandings of race:

• The majority (54%) self identify as “white,”

• Almost one in five (21%) self-identify as “Latino,” borrowing a North American term to connote a mixture predominantly white

• 16% self-identify as “brown,” a close analogue to the most frequently used Brazilian racial categories of pardo or moreno, and finally

• 7% self-identified as “black.”

When participants were asked how long they have been residing in the U.S., a surprising majority (58%) responded that they have been here for more than 10 years; 24% have been here between 6 and 9 years and just under 17% reported that they have been residing in the U.S. for less than 5 years.

Respondents resided mostly in the 48 towns and cities in the target geographical area, with a few residents being from cities and towns slightly to the west of Metrowest. In all 54 cities and towns were represented among the respondents.

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Survey Findings in Massachusetts

Job Definition, Pay and Benefits

A large number of respondents reported problems with the inadequacy of their pay and benefits, and with wage theft, that is, not being paid for some hours that they work.

Lack of a Living Wage for Many. More than four out of ten (43.6%) also think their pay is too low to raise them above the level of low-income; in other words, what they earn does not give them enough money to meet basic expenses. That so many are low income also highlights the damage that wage theft can do to their economic circumstances.

Unclear Job Descriptions. A majority (59%) were confused about the scope of their job duties, a bane of domestic work everywhere, not surprising since only 1.6% of the respondents have written contracts that specify duties and hours. This means in practice that it is easy for employers to add extra duties, and extra hours of work, to what is normally expected when the work session starts. This happens frequently to more than a quarter (25.6%) of the workers. Within the entire sample, many report working these extra hours only under duress, or severe pressure (10.6%). This kind of accretion of extra duties beyond the regular work, or “job creep,” is common in all kinds of domestic work. Some nannies, for example, whose work is to care for children, are asked to do housecleaning, and some housecleaners are asked to care for children. Typically these assignments occur randomly and unpredictably, as well, whether or not the worker has other commitments scheduled for after the usual work time.

“The employers always leave notes about what I should do, and many times tell me to do things that are not agreed to be part of my job.”

“It is really hard when we get to work, and our employer tells us they do not need us that day, and we are counting on that money to pay our bills.”

Insecurity of Employment and Income. Over two thirds (68%) of the domestic workers, largely due to the absence of written contracts, report that their employers cancelled their job with little or no notice, due to family vacations or perceived lack of need for the scheduled service. Typically, there is no pay given for these cancellations, even if they only occur when the worker reports for work at the home.

Wage Theft. Most of the hours workers spend on these extra tasks are also unpaid, that is, defined as a favor requested outside the scope of regular work that employers do not feel the need to compensate. Of the 25.6% of workers who have hours added in this way, almost two thirds (65.9%) reported that they are not paid extra for them. The problem is that these “favors” are recurrent, not rare, and the workers have no fixed job contract specifying duties to refer to in order to defend themselves against this kind of exploitation. Overall, over one out of eight (13%) of the entire sample of respondents are not paid in one way or another for the full hours that they work.

“I would like to have some rights as a ‘housecleaner’.”

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Exploitative control of pay. Beyond wage theft, many housecleaners report other employer manipulation and failings with respect to paying them fairly for work preformed.

• 31.3% report illegal deductions taken from their pay •10% report being paid with bad checks

• 86% report being paid late • 24% report being charged for lost or broken objects

Lack of benefits. Domestic workers’ employers, operating in the informal economy, rarely offer housecleaners any benefits.

• Only 9.1% received any pay for national holidays that fell on their regular work day.

• Only 7.8% were granted unpaid maternity leave. • Only 2% ever received paid sick days.

• Only 6.6% ever received paid vacation.

General Working Conditions: Pressured, Fast-paced, without Breaks

The work done by housecleaners is unrelenting, fast-paced, and pressured. If the housecleaner is part of a group under the supervision of a “schedule owner,” the team must rush at a fast pace at each house, without breaks, and any food or drink tends to be taken in the car rushing between jobs. Even those who work alone report they work at a fast pace. Overall, almost two-thirds characterized their work as “fast paced,” and a majority (53.8%) reported working all day without any breaks, even for eating.

Training: Few Have Any Professional Training

Knowing how to do domestic work is something learned on the job, often through trial and error, sometimes through the supervision given by schedule owners, and sometimes by employers. Most housecleaners among the immigrant community in the United States did not previously do housecleaning as a profession in Brazil. Almost nine of every ten (86.7%) reported they had never received any professional training for their work. This has implications for their vulnerability to safety and health dangers on the job, and the lack of training is also closely related to the relative lack of knowledge that domestic workers have about their labor rights as workers, even under current law, where in Massachusetts their work is subject to minimum wage and overtime provisions, as well as mandatory rest and meal breaks.

“I would like to have some security of employment, to not be fired without being advised at least one week or one month ahead of time, because it would give me time to find another job.”

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Safety and Health Issues in the Workplace

One of the most significant safety hazards that housecleaners experience in the workplace is from chronic exposure to toxic chemicals that are part of the commercial cleaning products they use in their work. These are chemicals designed for the level of use of the normal homeowner. Exposure of the homeowner to the chemicals is infrequent, and does not pose so much of a risk for this reason. The danger for housecleaners, however, is that they have intensive exposure to these chemicals, many times a day, and day after day. A majority of the respondents (57%) report that they are aware that they work with such dangerous products. Sometimes housecleaners are not aware of the harms these chemicals can pose for them. There are alternatives, of course – green cleaning products – but almost five of six (84.3%) respondents report they do not know about such products and for that reason never or rarely use them. Fewer than half (42.3%) wear safety gloves regularly. Overall, three out of five (60%) do not routinely use protective equipment such as gloves or eye protectors, and 39% report they do not know what to do in case of an accident. These findings are similar to those from the occupational health and safety survey completed by Siqueira and Roche (2013).

Domestic workers in cases of injury from such products are not covered under workers’ compensation law, unless they work more than 16 hours for the same employer, which is rare for housecleaners to do, even if their employers acknowledge them as formal employees, which is seldom the case. To make matters worse, one of eight (13.4%) domestic workers in the survey reported that they lack health insurance of any kind, even in a state where it has been universally mandatory for seven years. As immigrants, often undocumented, they also are not eligible in any case for health insurance that would be affordable to them.

“I borrowed a lot of money to come here, and I took a job where I had to work a lot, and use a lot of strong products, but I never complained because I couldn’t afford to lose that job. I would do anything they asked me to do.”

“I fell on the stairs with the vacuum and twisted my ankle. It really swelled up, but my boss told me to keep working until I was done. At the end of the day my boss deducted money from my pay to fix the vacuum.”

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Employer mistreatment: modest incidence but still unacceptable

Gross forms of employer personal abuse of domestic workers is fortunately not an everyday occurrence, and happens only at a modest level. It is a level, however, which remains unacceptable. Because housecleaners always have multiple employers, on the other hand, it increases their chances of victimization by someone. The most common forms that such abuse takes include:

• Being falsely accused of stealing in cases where family members misplace things 9.6% • Being verbally abused by being subjected to insults and name calling 10.9% • Being subjected to racial slurs 4%

• Experiencing threats of physical assault 2.9% • Experiencing sexual harassment 2.9% • Being fired for staying home with a sick family member 4.3% • Being fired for asking for a raise in pay 10.2% • Being fired for being pregnant 12%

Study Hypotheses

Hypothesis No. 1 had two parts, that

Workers with undocumented immigrant status are more likely to be darker in skin color, and of lower social class, than others, and secondly, that these workers are more likely to be the workers who are the most aggrieved over social and economic disrespect and exploitation in the workplace.

As regards the hypothesis that workers with undocumented status are more likely to be darker in skin color, that association was strongly supported by the evidence, with a Pearson’s chi square measure of association of .052, allowing us a 95% level of confidence in the strength of association between these two variables.

The second part of the hypothesis, that undocumented immigrant status was associated with a greater number of forms of employer mistreatment of workers, however, was only partially and quite weakly upheld. Employer abuse and mistreatment was measured in many ways, using 21 variables, having to do with wage theft and other salary inequities, quality of benefits, working conditions, issues of respectful treatment verbally and physically, and questions of sexual harassment. Most forms of employer abuse, either verbal or physical were not associated with racial identification, immigration status, or level of education, a proxy for class measurement in Brazil. Out of the 21 measures, not one was associated with immigration status, and only two were associated with racial identification. Non-white racial minorities were less likely to be given unpaid leave from work duties on national holidays, and less likely to be allowed to take unpaid time off for visits to the doctor.

“[I have experienced] abuse, screaming, and discrimination on account of being an immigrant and not knowing the language.”

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Hypothesis No. 2 that,

The longer housecleaners are working in the industry, the more likely it is that they manifest occupational health problems,

was not supported by the data.

It seems that workers newer to the profession of housecleaning suffer more injuries than those who have been working longer. We asked about many potential types of injuries, including: difficulty breathing; back injuries, including pulled back muscles; other strains or pulled muscles; wrist, shoulder, elbow or hip pain; other soreness or pain; skin irritation; contracted infectious illnesses, such as the flu; injuries from needles and other sharp objects; and contamination from body fluids. All these injuries were experienced by at least some workers in the sample, and a full 29.3% of respondents experienced some type of work injury during the previous 12 months. Almost a quarter of the respondents (23.7%) reported they saw their job as dangerous or hazardous in nature.

Nonetheless, only one type of injury - back injuries including pulled back muscles - was positively associated with increasing years of service as a domestic worker. Every other type listed above was in fact negatively associated with years of service as a domestic worker. In other words, contrary to our hypothesis, injuries were more frequent among those who had done domestic work for fewer years (0-5 years, instead of 6-10 years, 11-15 years, or longer). The trend with most injuries was thus downward in incidence, as more years of service were accumulated. We have realized that our questions were not effective in measuring the degree of occupationally related, long-term health deterioration in housecleaners, as opposed to measuring their current or recent health complaints.

The downward trend in job injuries over time very well might reflect the caution and training that comes from doing the job over a longer period, such that workers with more experience learn to protect themselves better. It also probably reflects the fact that newer workers mostly lack prior training in how to do the work in a way that minimizes harm from workplace hazards. The survey showed, in fact, that only 7% of the domestic workers in our sample had done domestic work prior to arriving in the United States as immigrants. Most had previous white-collar service occupations in Brazil, such as sales and clerical work. Many were schoolteachers, bank workers, social service professionals, store managers, government employees, accountants, administrative assistants, dental assistants, and university students. Their jobs in Brazil reflect the fact that as a group Massachusetts domestic workers are fairly well educated: more than a quarter (28.3%), prior to immigrating, had done at least some university study, or had degrees, and almost half were high school graduates (46.9%). They are clearly a population very capable of and amenable to training, which simply has not been made available to them as domestic workers.

“I want more information on workers’ rights and about green products.”

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Summary and Discussion of Key Findings

Our Massachusetts Brazilian survey was consistent, in most areas, with findings from two earlier surveys of domestic workers. A Massachusetts Brazilian housecleaner survey was undertaken as part of the Collaboration for Better Work Environment for Brazilian (COBWEB) Project during 2005-2006 (reported in Siqueira and Roche 2013), in a partnership between the UMass Lowell, the Lowell Community Health Center and the Brazilian Immigrant Center. The working conditions of Brazilian immigrant housecleaners have not changed much since then, now nearing a decade ago. The findings of our survey also broadly conform to the aggregate national-level findings of the 2012 report of the National Domestic Worker Alliance, Home Economics: the Invisible and Unregulated World of Domestic Work (NDWA 2012), which included Greater Boston as one of its research sites. There are very few ways in which domestic workers here differ from those elsewhere in the United States.

Each and every one of the major workplace problems identified in the present survey is either being responded to in the proposed Massachusetts Domestic Worker’s Bill of Rights or will be addressed in our impending domestic worker occupational safety and health course. These findings give us empirical evidence that these are real problems in Massachusetts that need remedies.

1. There is a high level of wage theft, related to poorly defined job duties and hours, chronic "job creep," and lack of contracts. Several provisions in the Bill of Rights aim to remedy these problems 2. Though housecleaner income is essential for support of most workers' families, both in the US and abroad, they are often discharged suddenly, without notice, and left without work for weeks when families go on vacation without notifying them, or abruptly decide they no longer need their services. The housecleaners’ income is thus not secure. Employers do not always take note that these are real jobs for people through which they make a living for themselves and others. Fully 81% of our survey respondents used their earnings to support other people apart from themselves. In almost half the cases (45%), the worker supported an additional two or more people. Almost half (44.2%) also send remittances to Brazil to support family members there. The Bill of Rights guarantees advance notice of termination of employment, and cancellation of the workday.

3. There is a high level of exposure to toxic products, and little knowledge or practice about alternatives or how housecleaners can protect themselves. This danger, and the means for protection against it, will be a major subject of the new OSHA course on domestic worker occupational safety and health.

4. There is a modest level of unacceptable harassment, disrespectful treatment, and arbitrary and punitive employer decisions that affect job security -- such as, firing a worker for being pregnant, for asking for a raise, or for staying home with a sick child or parent, or reducing their pay if something is broken in the house. All these abuses are addressed in new rights included in the Bill of Rights, especially the provision for written contracts that specify employee rights and duties at the outset of employment.

“My employer is nice and fair. Many or most aren’t really bad. They just don’t know any better. They’re doing what they have always done.”

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It is important to recognize, of course, that the major forms of abuse and mistreatment experienced by housecleaners and other domestic workers do not reduce to interpersonal hostility from employers. It is instead primarily due to the vulnerability that workers are subjected to by the structural circumstances of their employment, especially that their work is not legally considered a “real work,” and thus subject to the regulations that govern most other worksites in our economy. The Domestic Worker’s Bill of Rights will extend to housecleaners and other domestic workers the same worker’s rights that other kinds of employees have already been long entitled to under current state and federal labor laws.

Limitations of the study

The sample was large and quite stratified, but given the convenience and snowball sampling procedures used, and it is not representative, but only suggestive, of characteristics of the universe of Brazilian housecleaners. Our survey, moreover, though it focuses on issues unique to housecleaners, examines only one group among them, Brazilians. Brazilians, however, do dominate in the housecleaning industry in the state of Massachusetts. In any case, these results cannot be extended to other immigrant groups who are part of the housecleaner workforce, nor to any wider universe of domestic workers that includes elderly care workers, nannies, housekeepers, or personal care attendants. Because we used mostly snowball and convenience sampling to enlist respondents to the survey, and recruitment of respondents was carried out by domestic workers close to the Brazilian Immigrant Center and to the Vida Verde Housecleaners Cooperative, we think the surveyors’ social networks probably drew into our sample a pool of workers who are fairly knowledgeable and sophisticated in their understanding of their rights as workers. We may not have effectively tapped into pools of workers who are relatively less informed about domestic worker issues.

How the Findings will be Used

The Brazilian Immigrant Center will use the findings on working conditions to refine our educational campaigns for legislators, lobbying arguments, and public messaging for our current Domestic Worker’s Bill of Rights campaign. Preliminary findings from this report informed testimony given by Brazilian Immigrant Center staff and workers at the November 12, 2013 successful public hearing before the Massachusetts legislature’s Joint Committee on Labor and Workforce Development. Our presentation of the survey findings at the University of Massachusetts Boston on November 7, 2013, as well as the subsequent legislative hearing were covered by the Boston Globe in an article on November 17, 2013:

http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/regionals/west/2013/11/17/survey-finds-brazilian-housekeepers-massachusetts-often-work-without-contracts-breaks-sick-time/AXZcpv6bR2v6XqRvfaI4vN/story.html

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The survey findings will continue to be a resource for the Bill of Rights campaign during the remainder of this year’s legislative session, which ends in July 2014, and are being widely distributed to all the member organizations of the Massachusetts Coalition for Domestic Workers who are engaged in the campaign in our state.

In addition, the report is helping to shape a new, first-ever, two-hour domestic worker safety and health course, currently being finalized through a partnership between the US Department of Labor’s OSHA, Region One, and the Brazilian Immigrant Center. The training will cover ergonomics, protection against blood-borne pathogens, toxic cleaning products, violence and discrimination in the workplace, and sexual harassment. We will pilot this training in February 2014, and soon be using it in Connecticut as well as Massachusetts. As this is the first such course nationally, we expect it will also come into use in other states before long.

The survey results will also be presented and analyzed in a paper by Natalicia Tracy, Executive Director of the Brazilian Immigrant Center and Lecturer in Sociology at the University of Massachusetts Boston, at the Eastern Sociological Society Annual Meeting, this year in Baltimore, Maryland on February 22, 2014, whose 2014 theme is “Invisible Work.” Entitled, Domestic workers, US and globally: invisible and excluded, but emerging from the shadows, Natalícia’s paper will be presented as part of a panel on “Domestic Labor.”

References Cited

Fritz, Catarina

2010 Brazilian Immigration and the Quest for Identity. El Paso, Texas: LFB Scholarly Publishing LLC

Margolis, Maxine L. 2008 September 11th and Transnationalism: the Case of Brazilian Immigrants in the United States,” Human Organization 67(1): 1-11

NDWA (National Domestic Workers Alliance)

2012 Home Economics: the Invisible and Unregulated World of Domestic Work. Chicago: NDWA and the University of Illinois Chicago Data Center

Siqueira, C. Eduardo and Andrea Roche 2013 Occupational Health Profile Of Brazilian Immigrant Housecleaners In Massachusetts.

New Solutions 3(3): 505-520

Brazilian Immigrant Center, Inc.

14 Harvard Avenue, 2nd Floor, Allston MA 02134

www.braziliancenter.org

617-783-8001

© Brazilian Immigrant Center, Inc.

Acknowledgments

The Sociological Initiatives Foundation for their invaluable financial support as the sole funders of this research, and to Prentice Zinn, Program Officer.

Professor Glenn Jacobs of the University of Massachusetts Boston Department of Sociology for all his encouragement and support.

The Brazilian Immigrant Center research team: Natalicia Tracy, Lenita Carmo, Andrea Gouveia, Marcela DePaula, Danielle Villela, Tim Sieber

Domestic Worker Field Surveyors: Lenita Carmo, Angela Sena, Anneliese Macedo, Daniela Serrano, Danielle Villela, Fátima Chraska, Luci Santos Morris, Marcela DePaula, Orisania Milli, Rosario Swaidan, Tatiana Pinho, Denise Daly

Project Advisory Committee: UMass Boston Professors Tim Sieber (Anthropology) and Eduardo Siqueira (CPCS and Gastón Institute); Elisa Tristan, MD, Cambridge Health Alliance; and Linda Burnham, National Research Coordinator, NDWA; Luciano Ramos, Office of Community Partnerships; and all the Domestic Worker respondents.

UMass Boston Partnership: The Brazilian Immigrant Center gratefully acknowledges the valuable support and collaboration from our academic partner, the University of Massachusetts Boston, and its Anthropology and Sociology Departments, and Gastón Institute for Latino Community Development and Public Policy.

Photos - Mario Quiroz, from the traveling exhibition, “Domestic Workers: The Invisible Wheels that Empower our Economy”