BY RICK GORDON
My name is Pastor Rick Gordon. My wife, Paloma Palacios, and I have created this Bill of Rights pledge to protect Domestic Workers (cleaning ladies and nannies) in Los Cabos and throughout Mexico. We modeled the below Bill of Rights from the inerrant Word of God and the Declaration of Human rights created by the United Nations in 1948.
If you employ one or more domestic workers, you must:
1. Pay your worker at least a minimum wage of $213 pesos (minimum wage in México) for an 8hr day. But we want to pledge to pay at least $300 pesos for a day’s work.
2. Provide lunch for any employee working an 8hr day, including a 45 min break
3. Pay overtime at a minimum of $50 pesos per hour for any shift longer than 8hrs. Including live-in cleaning ladies and nannies.
4. Provide a day and a half of rest per week (unless programed in a different way by the parts). If your employee agrees to work on that day, they shall be paid double the minimum wage.
5. Give at least 6 paid days off after one year of work if they are working a minimum of 40 hours per week. If the employee elects to not take time off a bonus of the equivalent of one week’s salary should be paid. This, according to article 76 of the Mexican Constitution where it says that all workers that have been serving more than a year, will enjoy a period of paid vacations, that should not be less than 6 working days, and every year will increase two working days all the way to 12 days for every year of services provided.
6. If your Family is traveling and you have a full-time domestic worker that has been employed for more than 1 year; that time can be used as their paid vacation time. Yet, if you are traveling for more than 1-week, your domestic employee needs to be compensated at their daily minimum wage.
7. Provide transportation from the bus stop and back if the employee must walk more than 10 minutes to your residence. No human being should be walking 30-minutes in 100-degree weather. Especially in the El Tezal community.
8. We also suggest you consider paying social security for any full-time domestic worker who you’ve employed for more than 2 years. This will enable your employee’s health benefits for them and their family. You can facilitate this by contacting: http://www.imss.gob.mx/personas-trabajadoras-hogar
9. Offer a written notice to the employee about your policies on sick leave, vacation, personal leave, holidays and hours of work. As well as provide your employee with a written notice that lists the regular and overtime rates of pay and the regular payday.
10. Always treat each other with respect and kindness.
We hope that you make the pledge to uphold these rights and help us spread this message. Please visit our Facebook page at “The Surfing Pastor” and gives us a thumbs up and please repost this pledge on your social media. Together we can make a difference and protect the human rights of all domestic workers in Los Cabos and México.