On a day when workers across the country showed out in the face of a pandemic against a government and employers ignorant to their cries for more safety measures and benefits, Philadelphia Domestic Workers can celebrate their biggest achievement.

On May 1, the Philadelphia Domestic Worker Bill of Rights went into effect, granting a once unheard population of the workforce a new reality and voice in the fight for a more equitable city for all.

The new Bill of Rights guarantees the following for Philadelphia’s 16,000-strong domestic workers:

• Rest breaks and meal periods
• Freedom from discrimination and sexual harassment
• Written agreements to specify job duties, hours of work, pay, and termination notice
• Paid time off through a portable benefits platform
• Protection from retaliation when worker’s exercise rights, including for immigration status
• A Domestic Worker Task Force in City Hall that includes domestic workers to ensure enforcement

The fight for the Bill of Rights began back in the beginning of 2019. The local-led Pennsylvania Domestic Worker Alliance, in tandem with Councilmember María Quiñones-Sánchez, brought the prospective bill of rights to Philadelphia City Council on March 14.

City Council responded by holding a series of hearings, which took place at the beginning of April 2019, and featured testimonies of vulnerable workers often left out to dry without any legislative attention or backing.

On June 20, Philadelphia’s Domestic Worker Bill of Rights was formally introduced to City Council and after traversing committee and a couple more rounds of legislative jockeying over three months, the bill passed on October 31. A month later, it was signed into law with a May 1, 2020 start date.

With it, Philadelphia became the largest U.S. city to pass a domestic worker bill of rights, setting itself up as a leader in the nation alongside Seattle.

Even the nation followed suit, as Senator Kamala Harris introduced a national domestic worker bill of rights in July. 

For Morgan Williams, a member of the National Domestic Workers Alliance and part-time nanny in Philadelphia, the achievement not only shows the power of numbers when domestic workers come together, but also the strength of women, who make up a majority of domestic workers around the city and country.

“It shows you how powerful women are when we come together for a cause and support each other,” she said.

Williams also said that the experience of being a domestic worker can be isolating, but the movement in unison has created a support system that didn’t exist before among workers in different fields.

“We don’t feel so alone and we’re coming together. And look what happens when we did,” she said.

Her advice to domestic workers in other cities is to get more involved with the political process to force change. That means supporting and voting for candidates that back the same initiatives and have similar values. 

“Why we were able to win so much is [because] people on our council,” said Williams.

That winning has continued beyond the historic passage of the Domestic Worker Bill of Rights. 

Philly domestic workers found further legislative success by supporting a bill that made the Mayor’s Office of Labor a permanent department of city government to help with the enforcement of the Domestic Worker Bill of Rights. It passed City Council on Feb. 13, 2020.

But as COVID-19 hit the region at the beginning of March, domestic workers once again found themselves with the short end of the stick. Still, they’ve organized virtually to support one another.

On April 1, they joined a virtual town hall with a host of other low-wage workers affected by COVID-19 across the city to appeal for more support from City Council given their loss of work or unsafe working conditions. 

Williams, while not a full-time nanny anymore, said her “heart goes out” to domestic workers who’ve lost work or are confronted with an unsafe work environment.

Many of her friends who still are full-time nannies have transitioned to being in-house for theirs and their clients’ safety. The change brings a whole new set of obligations and complications when it comes to their working hours.

She said the Domestic Worker Bill of Rights helps set the precedent for some of those contractual complications.

To many organizers like Williams, the Bill of Rights was the first step for Philly domestic workers. The next step, they say, is making sure as many domestic workers as possible in the city know the rights they’re granted.

In the lead up to May 1, the National Domestic Worker Alliance hosted two virtual trainings to teach domestic workers about their newly-earned rights. 

The one in English, held on April 28 had close to 15 attendees, while the one in Spanish held on April 30 had upwards of 40.

Organizers at the National Domestic Worker Alliance said more dates for virtual trainings are in the works.

This article is part of Broke in Philly, a collaborative reporting project among more than 20 news organizations, focused on economic mobility in Philadelphia. Read all of our reporting at brokeinphilly.org.