Eve, here. As many of you know, I hired a home care worker, also known as a home health aide, to take care of my disabled mother, even though most of them did not have medical or nursing qualifications. Even though I was home most of the time (some of which was sleeping and working at night) and I was in the room with my girlfriend and aides most of the time, it never occurred to me to have one aide work 13 hours instead of 24 hours (we actually covered 13 hours in two shifts), much less pay them for 13 hours and have them work almost 24 hours in the facility. Not only would this obviously place an undue burden on the aides, but it also seemed likely to result in adverse selection, with only the most desperate working under these conditions. That New York state law normalizes this kind of abuse says a lot about how much we value this kind of work.
Written by Claudia Irizarry Aponte and Lily Sabella. First published on THE CITY
Fifteen home health aides began what they called an indefinite hunger strike Thursday after the City Council failed to advance a bill that would ban them from working 24 hours a day. The issue has upset the mostly immigrant women who work in the home health industry and the vulnerable patients who rely on their 24-hour care.
For more than a decade, live-in home care workers have been pushing for an end to the state’s requirement that home care workers be paid only 13 hours a day when they work 24 hours a day. 24-hour work is permitted as long as workers are allotted three hours of uninterrupted meal breaks and at least five hours of sleep.
The workers say they routinely work in the same house for up to 96 hours straight, without a break, and receive only a fraction of that time.
Outside City Hall, where workers have been protesting for nearly a month, Yunfang Chan, a 70-year-old home health care assistant, said through an interpreter that she was joining the hunger strike because “home care workers can’t wait any longer and our health is being destroyed.”
“We cannot allow this to be passed on to the next generation,” she said.
The battle over 24-hour work has pitted labor rights activists and advocates for disabled New Yorkers who rely on home care, as well as Gov. Kathy Hochul and City Council President Julie Menin, against each other over what should be an allied field, reportedly over funding issues.
The stalled bill, introduced by Chinatown City Councilman Christopher Marte, seeks to replace 24-hour shifts with 12-hour shifts run by two different workers. But disability advocacy groups and even some labor allies, including the city’s Office of Worker Protection, say the effort needs to be supported with additional state funding or risks leaving vulnerable patients without care and workers losing their jobs.
The workers say they have been forced to take the desperate step of going on a hunger strike.
In 85-degree weather, about 40 workers holding signs reading “Stop Working 24 Hours” sat on folding chairs next to the gates of City Hall. Fifteen of them began their hunger strike at 1 p.m.The previous hunger strike by about 20 home care workers in 2024 ended after six days.
Opponents argue that the bill does not address how the proposed split shift would be funded. Home health care is heavily subsidized by state Medicaid funds, which the city has no control over.
Zoran Mamdani said during his campaign that he supports abolishing the 24-hour working day, but his government has delayed Marte’s bill due to funding issues.
Asked about Marte’s bill last week, the mayor said he would leave it to the legislative process, saying he has “long supported any effort to recognize the hard work of home care workers.”
Marte said he is “optimistic” that he, Menin, Hochul and other parties will reach a deal soon.
Marte said the next time lawmakers meet to pass the bill, “we’re continuing to organize and push to hopefully bring it to a vote.” A bill he introduced in 2023 also failed to pass.
Last month, more than a dozen disability rights and legal organizations sent a letter to Mamdani and Menin opposing Marte’s bill, saying it would “create a home care crisis, denying thousands of New Yorkers the services they need and forcing them into hospitals, nursing homes, and shelters.”
Jose Hernandez, 45, who is disabled due to a childhood spinal cord injury, told THE CITY in a telephone interview that he supports the workers’ fight for full compensation. But he worries that without sufficient funding, efforts to provide relief will leave vulnerable patients behind.
Hernandez, of the South Bronx, said living in a nursing home, the only relief for disabled clients who have lost home care, would become “a fate worse than death” that advocates and the disabled community have been fighting for years.
“You’re stuck in a nursing home for no reason, just because you have a disability and need help,” he said. “For example, I would lose everything. I would lose my apartment. I would lose all my possessions except the clothes I wear. I would lose my freedom, because in a nursing home you cannot come and go freely. I would lose my job.”
“I’m going to lose everything. It’s no different than a prisoner going into Rikers Island,” he said.
Splitting the shifts would cost the five boroughs alone an estimated $450 million annually, according to estimates from 1199 SEIU, the main union representing home care workers across the state. Governor Hochul warned Menin that he would not pick up the tab, Documented reported.
Menin told reporters on Thursday that lawmakers would go back to the drawing board after consulting with “various stakeholders.”
“We look forward to sharing the new version of the bill with the Governor’s Office,” the Speaker added.
The home care program is run by an entity that receives state funding through Medicaid, but city councils have no control over it. State lawmakers have long opposed similar proposals across the state to split the 24-hour shift, fearing that without additional funding, expanding worker protections could put nonprofits at risk of bankruptcy, take workers out of work and leave vulnerable patients without the care they need.
At a Feb. 18 hearing, a representative from the city’s Department of Consumer and Worker Protection said the agency supports the intent of Marte’s bill, but expressed concern that it could have unintended consequences for patients and workers.
Disability advocates have accused Marte of excluding them from debate on the bill. They say the way it’s currently written could increase costs for patients and force them into nursing homes.
In an interview with The City last month, Marte dismissed concerns about the bill’s state funding and estimated $450 million price tag.
Disability advocates and patients interviewed by the city said they did not know Marte had reintroduced the bill this year until a month after the Feb. 18 hearing.
Marte said these claims are a “false narrative” aimed at his credibility and the credibility of his home care workers. He said he had an “open door policy” and that his hearings had been heavily advertised on social media in advance.
“I’ve been talking to all kinds of stakeholders, including those who oppose our bill,” he said. “In fact, I think this bill will improve their care.”
The issue has created a deep rift between patient and worker advocates, and has frustrated some leaders on both sides.
Sharon McLennon Weir, executive director of the New York Center for Disability Independence, said the organization “does not object to the fact that home health aides should be paid. We support that they should be paid for every hour they work.”
But she highlighted concerns that without adequate funding, patients could end up back in nursing homes or facilities, jeopardizing their own independence and freedom and the possibility of employing home health aides.
Katie Honan contributed reporting.
