Home care workers face hazards, disability

ST. LOUIS, March 11 (UPI) -- Domestic service workers who do cleaning, cooking, childcare and elder care in private homes face a variety of workplace hazards, U.S. researchers said.

Peggie Smith, employment law expert and professor of law at Washington University in St. Louis, said almost two-thirds of domestic service workers polled in a recent California study said they considered their jobs hazardous.

Three-quarters said they did not receive basic protective gear to help prevent workplace injuries and illnesses, and a majority of workers reported they had not received training in job safety or injury prevention, Smith said.

"Domestic employees face a variety of workplace hazards when working in clients' homes, including exposure to harmful cleaning chemicals, verbal and physical abuse and injuries caused by lifting and moving clients with limited mobility," Smith said in a statement. "In the United States, worker health and safety is regulated by the federal Occupational Safety and Health Act, but this act does not protect domestics who are classified as self-employed or who are employed by an individual client. The act also offers very limited protection for those domestics who are employed by third-party agencies such as a home-care agency or a cleaning agency."

These workers experience higher rates of debilitating musculoskeletal disorders than any other U.S. occupational group, including workers in coal mines and steel mills, Smith said.

The article is published in the Canadian Journal of Women & the Law.