New study looks at plight of women day laborers

“Standing Up For Dignity” outlines steps to protect females on the job

August 19, 2016 By Paula Katinas Brooklyn Daily Eagle

Ligia Guallpa, executive director of the Worker’s Justice Project, says female day laborers “face a unique set of challenges.” Eagle file photo by Paula Katinas

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A new eye-opening study conducted by a Brooklyn-based advocacy group seeks to shed light on the plight of women day laborers.

The study, titled “Standing Up for Dignity: Women Day Laborers in Brooklyn,” was written by the Worker’s Justice Project (WJP) and the Worker Institute at Cornell. The WJP is based in Bensonhurst and works to improve working conditions for day laborers, many of whom are immigrants.

Among the study’s findings:

90 percent of women who took part in the survey work as housekeepers in the local community.
75 percent of women are the primary income earners for their households. Working an average of 20 hours per week, they earn an average of $893 per month.
71 percent of the women reported enduring illnesses that they believed resulted from standing at the street corner waiting to be hired. The women had no access to restroom facilities. In addition, many women reported illness or chronic pain resulting from exposure to toxic cleaning materials and from being made to clean floors on their hands and knees.
65 percent have no access to health care.
89 percent do not get lunch breaks.

The report focused heavily on Williamsburg, an area of Brooklyn that has a large day labor force, according to WJP Executive Director Ligia Guallpa.

The female day laborers “face a unique set of challenges,” Guallpa told the Brooklyn Eagle. “We did the study to understand who the day laborers are, what challenges they face and what can be done to improve their situation,” she said.

While the vast majority of women in the survey were domestic workers, a large number of females also work in the construction industry, Guallpa said. “Many of the women work in the clean-up part of construction sites. Others work in the food processing industry,” she said.

One common thread in the study had to do with salary. “We found that many employers hire these women because they want to pay them lower wages,” Guallpa said, adding that the WJP advocates for an increase in the minimum wage to $15 an hour.

The possible solutions, according to the report, include establishing a hiring hall in Williamsburg to provide basic facilities for women and ensure mutually beneficial employment contracts, the establishment of a “code of conduct” to ensure workplace safety and the creation of workforce development opportunities to ensure stable employment for women workers and to encourage the implementation of safety practices, such as the use of green cleaning supplies.

The southern end of Brooklyn has a hiring hall where day laborers can go to find work; the Bay Parkway Community, a WJP-facility located next to the Caesar’s Bay Shopping Mall in Bensonhurst. “We want to replicate it in Williamsburg,” Guallpa told the Eagle.

The women “deserve to be treated with dignity,” she said.

One of the goals of the study is to get people to understand that female day laborers make important contributions to the community as a whole, Guallpa said.

The work done by housekeepers and domestic workers, for example, is important because it allows homeowners to pursue full careers outside the home. “Their work makes others’ work possible,” she said, referring to day laborers.

The full report can be found here: https://issuu.com/workersjusticeproject/docs/standing_up_for_dignity_-_women_day/1.