MoCo considers bill requiring contracts with domestic workers

jackie.sauter//January 28, 2008//

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In this hour, MoCo Councilmembers Marc Elrich and George Leventhal are holding a press conference in Rockville to announce a bill that would require employers to sign a written employment contract with certain types of domestic workers. The county is lauding it as potentially the “first legislation nationally of this type.”

The bill would require an employer to present a written employment contract to the potential employee and offer to negotiate the terms and conditions of employment. It would apply to employers of housekeepers, childcare workers, and caretakers for the elderly or sick, among others.

A 2006 study found that MoCo domestic workers have limited access to information about their rights under state and county law and few have written contracts. Consequently, many of them are paid less than the required minimum wage and do not receive overtime pay for work in excess of 40 hours per week.

JACKIE SAUTER, Web Editor