Home : Women's Rights : Employment

Senate Committee Hears Testimony on Need for Fair Pay Legislation (01/24/2008)
Washington, DC – The Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions committee held a hearing today on S. 1843, the “Fair Pay Restoration Act,” which would ensure that victims of workplace discrimination receive effective remedies. The bill’s companion measure, H.R. 2831, passed the House of Representatives in July, 2007. The ACLU urges the committee to support S. 1843 in order to fix a recent Supreme Court decision that undermines protections against discrimination in compensation that have been bedrock principles of civil rights laws for decades.

Abused Domestic Workers of Diplomats Seek Justice From International Commission (11/15/2007)
NEW YORK –Domestic workers who were exploited and abused in the U.S. by foreign diplomats petitioned an international commission today because U.S. domestic law denies them their rights and a way to seek justice.

Hearing Brings Modern-Day Slavery to Light, ACLU Urges State Department to Play Its Role in Stopping It (10/18/2007)
Washington, DC – Modern-day slavery exists in the shadows, but it is alive and well, said witnesses today at a House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing on the reauthorization of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act. The American Civil Liberties Union is urging Congress to add new safeguards that prevent the abuse, exploitation and trafficking of domestic employees by foreign diplomats and to remove the shield of diplomatic immunity that prevents these victims from holding the diplomats accountable.

La ACLU logra acuerdo negociado para mujeres inmigrantes en un caso de acoso sexual (08/29/2007)
NUEVA YORK – En una contundente reafirmación del derecho de las mujeres inmigrantes a trabajar sin temor a la agresión y al acoso sexual, la Unión Americana de Libertades Civiles (ACLU, por sus siglas en inglés) anunció el día de hoy el acuerdo negociado en un caso que involucró a tres mujeres latinas que fueron acosadas por su patrón en una tienda de Manhattan.

ACLU Wins Settlement for Immigrant Women in Sexual Harassment Case (08/29/2007)
NEW YORK - In a resounding affirmation of immigrant women's right to work without fear of sexual assault and harassment, the American Civil Liberties Union today announced a settlement in a case involving three Latina women harassed by their employer in a Manhattan retail store.

Letter to Bureau of Labor and Statistics (02/23/2005)
Comments on Proposed Discontinuation of Current Employment Statistics Women Worker Series

Rights of Women Workers (01/30/2004)

Rights of Women Workers in New York (01/30/2004)

Derechos de las Mujeres Trabajadoras en Nueva York (01/30/2004)

Derechos de las Mujeres Trabajadoras (01/30/2004)

Webb v. City of Philadelphia - Amicus Brief (01/09/2008)
On January 9, 2008 the ACLU Women's Rights Project, Program on Freedom of Religion and Belief, and the ACLU of Pennsylvania filed an amicus brief in a case concerning the right of a Muslim woman to cover her hair while working as a police officer. The brief documents a wide range of police, public safety, and military organizations across the country and around the world that recognize that they may maintain the uniformity of appearance necessary to function effectively while permitting individual officers to wear clothing and to deviate from grooming regulations when the officers do so as part of a religious practice.

Petition of UN Domestic Workers to the IACHR (11/15/2007)

Sabbithi, et al. v. Al Saleh, et al.: Plaintiffs' Opposition to Defendants' Motion to Dismiss (05/30/2007)

Sabbithi, et al. v. Al Saleh, et al.: Complaint and Jury Demand (01/17/2007)
Complaint in Sabbithi, et al. v. Al Saleh, et al.

USA v. Brennan Decision (09/11/2006)
USA v. Brennan Decision

ACLU Letter to the Senate Urging A Yes Vote on H.R. 2831, The Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2007 (04/21/2008)

ACLU Comments Submitted to the US Department of Labor on the Family Medical Leave Act (04/11/2008)
On behalf of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), and its hundreds of thousands of members, activists, and fifty-three affiliates nationwide, we thank you for the opportunity to provide comments on the United States Department of Labor’s (DOL) notice of proposed rulemaking and request for comments dated February 11, 2008. The ACLU strongly concurs with the comprehensive comments submitted today by the National Partnership for Women and Families and the other signatories to their letter. We support and agree with their discussion of and recommendations regarding the proposed rules, especially with respect to those issues the ACLU raised in our response, dated February 16, 2007, to the DOL’s Request for Information. We are also submitting this letter to echo and amplify the National Partnership's comments with respect to the proposed rules relating to medical privacy and waiver of judicial or agency review of settlement agreements.

ACLU Letter to Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Leadership in Support of Fair Pay Restoration Act (01/22/2008)
On behalf of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), and its hundreds of thousands of members, activists, and fifty-three affiliates nationwide, we thank the Committee for holding a hearing on S. 1843, the “Fair Pay Restoration Act.” S. 1843, whose companion measure, H.R. 2831, passed the House of Representatives July 31, 2007, is necessary to ensure that victims of workplace discrimination receive effective remedies. We urge the Committee to support S. 1843 in order to fix a recent Supreme Court decision that undermines protections against discrimination in compensation that have been bedrock principles of civil rights laws for decades.

Letter to David M. Walker, Comptroller General of the U.S., from Senators Richard J. Durbin and Tom Coburn (11/16/2007)

Trafficking Coalition Letter to Senators Biden and Lugar and Representatives Lantons and Ros-Lehtinen (10/18/2007)

Podcast Translation: Otilia Luz Huayta (11/13/2007)

Declaration of Hildah Ajasi to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (11/09/2007)
Petition Alleging Violations by the United States of American of the Human Rights of Domestic Workers Employed by Diplomats

Declaration of Siti Rina Aisah to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (11/09/2007)
Petition Alleging Violations by the United States of American of the Human Rights of Domestic Workers Employed by Diplomats

Declaration of Otilia Luz Huayta to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (11/09/2007)
Petition Alleging Violations by the United States of American of the Human Rights of Domestic Workers Employed by Diplomats

Declaration of Raziah Begum to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (11/09/2007)
Petition Alleging Violations by the United States of American of the Human Rights of Domestic Workers Employed by Diplomats

Human Trafficking: Modern Enslavement of Immigrant Women in the United States (PDF) (05/31/2007)
Human trafficking is a modern form of slavery. It is an extreme form of labor exploitation where women, men and children are recruited or obtained and then forced to labor against their will through force, fraud or coercion. Trafficking victims are often lured by false promises of decent jobs and better lives. The inequalities women face in status and opportunity worldwide make women particularly vulnerable to trafficking.

Case Profile - Sabbithi, et al. v. Al Saleh, et al. (01/17/2007)
The suit charges the country of Kuwait and a Kuwaiti diplomat and his wife with trafficking three women and forcing them to work as domestic employees and childcare workers against their will under slavery-like conditions.

U.S. v. New York City Board of Education (10/23/2002)
ACLU Represents New York City Custodial Workers in Discrimination Case