Globe: Domestic workers in Massachusetts are vulnerable to poor working conditions, unfair pay
A new Boston Globe report details how the estimated 67,000 domestic workers in Massachusetts, working behind closed doors and burdened with language barriers, are increasingly vulnerable to abuse at the hands of their employers.
The Globe report says domestic workers often live thousands of miles from their native countries and families, isolated and without access to resources. As they’re dependent on their employers for not only a salary but also a place to live, they’re prone to physical and emotional abuse, poor working conditions, long hours, and unfair wages.
Few domestic workers report such instances, the Globe reports, as they fear that going to authorities could get them deported.
“People think this happens elsewhere in the world, not in the rich, liberal Northeast,’’ Quinn Kepes, a program director at Verite, a nonprofit that investigates the abuse of workers worldwide, told The Globe. “These women, and it’s mostly women, have nowhere to go. They’re socially and culturally isolated, and they have nowhere to turn.’’
Read the full Globe story here.
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