“No More 24!” – Home Care Workers Demand Protection from Wage Theft and Abuse

By Phyllis Eckhaus

May Day and workers’ rights have been entwined since the late 19th century campaign for an eight-hour work day. This year, workers and allies plan a huge May Day rally at New York City Hall to condemn a labor abuse so Dickensian it’s hard to imagine it exists in our time— the 24-hour shifts that present-day New York City home care attendants are forced to work, often several days at a stretch.

Adding insult to injury, because current law requires meal breaks and five hours of rest, home attendants enduring 24-hour shifts are paid only for 13 hours of work, unless they formally challenge the theft of their wages. A City Council bill has stalled because Council Speaker Adrienne Adams has thus-far refused to schedule a hearing, which is a prerequisite to a vote. The bill titled “No More 24!”, Introduction No. 615, would amend the city code to limit maximum hours for home care aides.

Constant Vigilance

Lai Yee Chan—a retired home care worker who’d been responsible for a bed-bound client with Alzheimer’s—told The Village View through an interpreter how she’d had to be constantly vigilant, throughout her 24-hours-a-day shifts, which she was forced to work straight, three to five days at a time.

Chan had to turn her patient every two hours to prevent bed sores. And she had to be on red alert to her patient’s potential breathing problems and once called 911 to get her hospitalized. It was clear the hospital had not matched Chan’s vigilance because her patient came home with bed sores.

After eight years as an always-on-the-alert home care attendant, forced to work days and nights on end, Chan still has ongoing insomnia. She also grieves the toll on her life and family. “I couldn’t spend time with my children and watch them grow up. My husband had to quit his job to watch the children.”

“No More 24!” Bill

District 1 Council Member Christopher Marte, who first introduced a version of “No More 24!” in 2022, noted that tens of thousands of workers—overwhelmingly immigrant women of color—are affected, and that the work, which includes lifting patients, is exhausting and injury-prone. Home care attendants “have to be super-focused,” putting enormous “stress on…mind and body.” He condemned the home care industry and insurance companies for treating home attendants as servants.

It’s an issue Marte takes personally. His mother worked consecutive 24-hour shifts as a home care attendant. “Seeing her leave and not come back for two days really put a strain on [our] family.” He added, “We’ve talked to a lot of home attendants who’ve gotten divorced or have been unable to see their kid graduate from school or celebrate their birthdays.”

New Support from Local 1199

Marte observed there was a lengthy City Council hearing more than a year and a half ago on his original bill, which was then opposed by Local 1199, the health care workers’ union. That bill capped work hours to 35 a week. He said the bill has since been amended to allow limited additional weekly hours, typically with advance notice and written consent from the home care worker, and that 1199 has dropped its opposition.

Marte countered bill opponents who contend “we don’t have the money to do this,” noting that New York City is the only place in the state allowing 24-hour shifts. “When you look at other parts of the state…it’s something that can definitely be done.” He underscored how current law promotes abuse and profiteering, pointing to the over 100 thousand city home care attendants who have sued for back pay.

As for those who claim the bill exceeds the city’s authority to regulate work hours, Marte explained that the bill was carefully drafted to modify the New York City Fair Workweek Act, which protects fast food and retail workers, and which has already survived court challenge.

The Road Ahead

Touting wide support for the bill, which includes Republican co-sponsors, Marte believes the measure would pass if only it could be scheduled for a new hearing and subsequent vote.

Last spring, home care workers staged a five-day hunger strike outside City Hall, attempting—unsuccessfully—to get a vote on the previous bill.

Chan blames Speaker Adams for single-handedly blocking “No More 24!” “She is a dictator,” Chan declared, “colluding with the insurance companies and the Chinese-American Planning Council,” (a major employer of city home care attendants).

With a mix of fury and wry humor, she expressed hope that “perhaps the president will read this article and investigate her.”