California’s housekeepers and nannies will be left without workplace safety protections after Gov. Gavin Newsom vetoed a bill Saturday that would include the industry in labor laws already extended to other workers.

The decision is a major loss for labor unions and immigrant rights advocates who have fought for years to regulate an industry dominated by women of color who have reported on-the-job injuries but are exempt from Occupational Safety and Health Administration rules.

Newsom said that while he is “committed to the well-being of domestic workers,” private households cannot be regulated in the same way as businesses. Under this legislation, private households would be required to provide eyewash stations if employees use bleach and could face fines of up to $15,000 per safety violation. “The households that employ domestic workers include middle- and low-income families and older Californians who need daily assistance ranging from personal care to house cleaning and childcare,”

he said in a veto message on Saturday.

“I am particularly concerned, given that approximately 44% of households that employ domestic workers are themselves low-income, that this bill will impose serious costs and penalties on many people who cannot afford them.”

This is the second time Newsom has vetoed proposed safety regulations for domestic workers such as cleaners and caregivers, citing similar privacy and liability concerns about enforcement in 2020.

The California Domestic Workers Coalition had turned up the pressure this time and protested in Sacramento, armed with brooms and dust cloths. Just this week, Mary Kay Henry, president of SEIU International, and noted labor activist Dolores Huerta called on Newsom to “do the right thing.”

Saturday’s veto comes despite a recommendation from a statewide advisory committee to end Cal/OSHA’s 50-year exclusion of domestic workers, an omission that advocates say is rooted in sexist and racist policies dating back to slavery.

That committee, made up of private employers, employees, advocates and health and safety experts, was created by legislation Newsom signed in 2021 as part of a pledge to continue working on a solution.

The committee has developed voluntary industry guidelines to prevent slips and trips, injuries from lifting heavy objects, allergic reactions and occupational asthma from chemicals in cleaning products.

A 2020 report from the UCLA Labor and Occupational Safety and Health program found that 85% of domestic workers surveyed experienced musculoskeletal injuries, and that common injuries could be avoided with legal protections such as using the right equipment , such as long-handled tools to reduce their impact. bending and reaching.

Sen. Mara Elena Durazo’s (D-Los Angeles) bill had a long list of supporters, including SEIU California, the California Immigrant Policy Center and the Legislative Womens Caucus, and no official opposition.

But it was expected to cost at least $42 million annually, at a time when the state is facing a multi-trillion dollar budget deficit.

Nancy Zuniga, program manager of the immigrant nonprofit Instituto de Education Popular del Sur de California, advocated for the bill.

She remembers how her mother, pregnant with her sister, slipped and almost fell while mopping someone else’s floor while participating in a cleaning job when she was just six years old.

Her life was so shaped by her mother’s housework that she was named “Nancy” after one of the employers for which she worked as a nanny. At a march in Sacramento last month, Zuniga joined housekeepers and nannies in the fight for safety protection, some bringing their children, as did her mother.

Zuniga’s mother still cleans houses at age 63, but Zuniga hopes she can retire one day.

“If we don’t protect the domestic workers, what condition will she be in when she reaches that moment?” she said. “A lot of them will do this until they’re over.”