Media Release

For Immediate Release: July 11, 2018

Home Health Aides, Patients and Families Blast NYS Department of Labor at Public
Hearing for Exploiting Aides and Endangering Patients’ Lives

Home attendants, patients, women's groups, elected officials and patient

advocates are speaking out against the NYS Department of Labor (DOL), demanding an
end to its emergency regulation that sanctions a 24-hour work day while only paying for
13 hours. The DOL regulation violates the state’s own labor laws and may violate the
13th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution by forcing workers to stay in patients’ homes
without overnight pay. The NYSDOL is holding a hearing today to make the emergency
ruling permanent.

Jian Hua Deng spent 6 years working as a home attendant for Family Home Care.
She had to take care of a patient with colon cancer as well as her husband. During that
time, there was not a day she slept more than 2 hours at a time. She says of the
emergency regulation, "The judges have already made a decision on some of these
cases, that 24 hour workers should get 24 hours of wages. But the boss does not act
according to the law, and the Department of Labor not only doesn't help workers, but
actually uses emergency regulation to suppress our demands! ... We are not live-in
domestic workers but we're not even as well-treated as them! The system of 24 hour
shifts shouldn't continue! For the health and vitality of workers and patients, splitting
into 2 shifts is very necessary."

Home attendants, 93% of whom are women, say the new regulation is bringing
modern-day slavery to the state and harming patients just as much as the workers.
Some agencies are now instructing home attendants to not respond to the patients’
needs at night and to call 911 if there is an emergency. Workers are unable to leave the
patients' home during a 24-hour shift and most are unable to sleep through the night,
affecting not only workers' health but also the quality of care they are able to provide
for elderly, sick and disabled patients.

Seferina Rosario, a home attendant with United Jewish Council for 28 years says
of her work conditions, “I have almost always taken care of patients with Alzheimers. I
almost never can sleep. No responsible home attendant will sleep if you have a patient
who needs 24 hour care. Why would you be in someone's home all night if you're not
working? That's illogical.”

Workers from as far as Buffalo, New York have come to speak out and denounce
the DOL’s emergency regulation. Mary Lister a home attendant and organizer with the
Ain’t I A Woman Campaign says, “We have come too far to go back to the days of
societal neglect of people with disabilities, and of forced, unpaid labor of working class
people. The home care community of Buffalo will not sit idly by if our rights are
threatened. We will, however, welcome with open arms the opportunity for the DOL to
stand with the home care workers and patients of NYC and of the state as a whole, by
honoring the court's prior decisions that proved the 13-hour rule unlawful. If 8-hour
shifts for 24-hour cases are possible in Buffalo, then 12-hour or shorter shifts can be
made the norm here.”

Legal advocates for the workers assert that the DOL’s emergency regulation is
attacking the very state and federal laws it is supposed to uphold, and is in direct
contradiction with the 13th Amendment to the Constitution which abolished
involuntary servitude. Leah Lotto, an attorney with National Center for Law and
Economic Justice says, “This proposed regulation is an affront to the fundamental
principle of our state's and nation's labor laws: that workers must be paid be for all
hours worked.”

Workers and supporters were joined by several elected officials. "Home care
workers provide critical care to vulnerable seniors and people with serious health
needs, and they deserve to be paid fairly and to work reasonable hours so they can
continue to provide these important services. I am deeply concerned about the
Department of Labor's regulation and its impacts on the wages and health of these
workers, who are disproportionately women and people of color. I urge the New
York State Department of Labor to not make this regulation permanent and I stand
with the 'Ain’t I A Woman Campaign' and support their efforts to protect women
workers in our state,” said Assemblymember Jo Anne Simon.

Added State Assemblymember Harvey Epstein,"The proposal to codify these

regulations flies in the faces of multiple appellate court judges who agree that home
care aides should be afforded the dignity and fair compensation that all workers
deserve. These regulations hurt workers, patients, and their families. That’s not what we
stand for here in New York.”

Workers and supporters are urging the NYSDOL to:

● Rescind the emergency regulation, and stop resisting the court’s rulings
● Demand insurance companies and home care agencies immediately comply with
the court decisions and compensate the home attendants for stolen wages
● Abolish the 24-hour workday —patients requiring 24 hours of care should be
provided split shifts of 12 hours each to allow home attendants time to rest and
patients to receive proper care.

Media Contact:
Jei Fong, (646) 387-4956, jfong2600@gmail.com
JoAnn Lum, (212) 358-0295, joann@nmass.org
Ain’t I A Woman Campaign is Endorsed by: National Mobilization Against Sweatshops, Chinese
Staff & Workers Association, National Organization for Women - NYC, Wind of the Spirit,
Students Organizing Against Reynolds, College Progressives at Binghamton University,
Flushing Workers Center, Citrus College Adjunct Faculty Federation, UAW Local 675,
Brooklyn-Wide Interagency Council on Aging, The Socialist Party of New York City