Nanny Rights
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Anonymous
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I was reading the other day about the young maid/nanny from Sri Lanka who was beheaded recently in Saudi Arabia.
http://altnews.asia/lanawaoo/sat-12012013-0949/beheading-sri-lankan-maid-saudi-arabia-sparks-outrage-across-globe It got me thinking about nanny rights - or lack of - especially when we work abroad & within our own country. When it's the families word against the nannies (especially when a family is afraid the nanny will tell all) things can get quite pear shaped. It also makes me hesitant to work in some of the cultures I am not familiar with because I am unsure what the game is - how they operate behind closed doors - which is a shame because probably 80% of the households are fine. For example I'd love to nanny in Russia but always get a bit freaked out that the agencies aren't legit and I'll end up getting trafficked or a kidney cut out. So what do think should be our basic Rights as nannies? And what can we do to ensure we are all safer in the workplace? |
Anonymous
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Anonymous
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Eww....Do YOU have to be so graphic??!!
I.e., a beheaded nanny, a nanny with her kidney cut out, etc. Yucky yuck! LOL. |
Anonymous
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Overtime pay, for live-ins. Enforceable contracts. Right now, your "contract", or more accurately, your "agreement", is mostly worthless. However, it is certainly a useful tool to make nannies do just about everything. A truthful definition of a "nanny". Hint: A nanny is not someone who does whatever might be needed. Fact: If you are, or have someone, who does whatever might be needed, you (or she), is not a nanny. Sorry. |
Anonymous
| A nanny may volunteer to do extra tasks, but to put it as her nanny requirement, discounts her as being a nanny. |
Anonymous
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"So what do think should be our basic Rights as nannies? And what can we do to ensure we are all safer in the workplace? "
1. the examples you give have nothing to do with "nanny rights" and "workplace safety". If you are chosing to travel to a country as volatile /risky as those listed above, you have way bigger concerns than OT issues. The biggest issue being not trusting the police much and the likelihood of something physically dangerous happening to you. 2. on a totally different note, if you mean the US - where almost everyone here lives - then I would say nannies should be afforded the same rights as other hourly workers. If all hourly jobs are required to guarantee hours and pay OT, then nanny jobs should too. But I totally disagree that nannies should be singled out for getting better mandated benefits simply because the families that employ them are less politically powerful than say restaurant owners. (FWIW, I do guarantee hrs, pay sick & vacation and have had same nanny 5 yrs - but being a responsible employer is different from thinking things should be legally mandated.) |
Anonymous
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Yes, we are concerned with commonplace labor protections here in our own country.
Simply not wise for any nanny to take a job overseas in cultures that routinely abuse/rape women. Why would anyone even consider that? |
Anonymous
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OT for live-ins
Extending discrimination protections to employers of single employees (firing a nanny when she tells you she's pregnant??) Better enforcement of the laws that exist but are commonly ignored ie. retaliation and defamation laws, OT pay, being taxed as an employee, payment for all hours worked, minimum wage, proper payroll deductions, how to properly determine the worth of a live-in space. No the tiny bedroom across the hall from your child, sharing a bathroom with your kid, and the pleasure of living with you does not mean you don't have to pay me. The nature of the nanny industry often creates a dynamic of a less educated, perhaps foreign, nanny without the knowledge of her rights or the resources to see them enforced, taken advantage of by more educated more aware of laws and how to skirt them and more resources that make them essentially untouchable. I would really like to see an organization not only fighting for and expanding these rights, but educating and equipping nannies about them and how to see them enforced. |
Anonymous
| *more educated parents |
Anonymous
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It's a real tragedy that the INA refuses to allow their nanny members to advocate proactively as a group. Everyone knows that advocacy requires big numbers. So they tell you that you can do what you want on your own, but not on behalf on INA nanny membership, even if they all have common goals.
In fact, it's downright shameful and embarrassing. And they have nothing to say for themselves. They've become a self-promoting nanny agency scam, parading as an educational non-profit. They certainly educate both nannies and parents into believing that forking over thousands of dollars into agency pockets, is the only way to go. What a scam. This is really outrageous, when you think about it. |
nannydebsays
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| Nannies have rights under the Fair Labor Standards Act. |
Anonymous
What's your point? That live-in nannies should not be required, by law, to be paid OT? |
Anonymous
| I despise Saudi Arabia. I find it extremely hypocritical and unjust. I just had to get that out. |
Anonymous
If you're that freaked out over those two statements then I'd advise you to stay far away from the Internet, or even public for that matter.. Grow a pair. Life is graphic. |
Anonymous
I imagine it's quite a beautiful country, but would never travel in that region due to the common 'women are my property' mentality. It's so sad. |