Home Care Workers Rally in Downtown Brooklyn After Major Ruling
When it rains, it pours: after years of relative deadlock, home care workers are gaining ground at both the state and city levels as they protest rampant wage theft and round-the-clock shifts.
Thursday’s rally outside the Department of Labor’s offices on Hanson Place was the third in Brooklyn since last fall, and the first since the New York State Supreme Court ordered the DOL to reopen hundreds of wage theft cases.
By Jack Delaney | jdelaney@queensledger.com
DOWNTOWN — They’re not going away without a fight.
On Thursday, February 5, nearly two hundred home care workers — overwhelmingly older women of color — rallied with former Comptroller Brad Lander outside the New York State Department of Labor’s (DOL) offices in Downtown Brooklyn, demanding that it reimburse them for widespread wage theft.
For years, community advocates and lawmakers, including now-Mayor Zohran Mamdani, have pressed the state to crack down on labor abuses by home care companies. At an event last October, speakers singled out the Chinese-American Planning Council for subjecting aides to grueling hours. Last week’s protest focused on two of the city’s largest agencies, Royal Care and ABI Health Care, which workers accuse of withholding a combined $25 million.
Dellanira Soto is one of them. Soto worked with Royal Care for 14 years, logging 24-shifts that left her with lasting health issues such as tachycardia. Like many attendants, she was forced to travel outside the country to receive affordable care — yet the company not only refused to cover the cost, she alleged through a translator, but continued to systematically underpay her.
Under state law, home care companies may pay their employees for only 11 hours of a day-long shift if they are given breaks to sleep and eat. But many workers claim they were frequently denied these, a practice Soto noted was also the case at other companies she’s worked for.
“This is our blood, sweat, and tears in these wages,” said Soto.
Lawmakers and advocates have focused their efforts on the DOL, which they say has refused to hold companies accountable.
“What good is the Department of Labor finding that they stole wages, if they don’t enforce the law?” said Lander, swaddled in winter gear, who as comptroller listed Royal Care and ABI among the city’s worst employers from 2020 to 2022.
Dellanira Soto says she was denied almost $200,000 in wages by Royal Care, a prominent home care agency.
Yet though the allegations span decades, the campaign has only gained ground relatively recently.
In 2022, home care workers who were part of 1199SEIU — the largest health care union in New York — received word that it had negotiated a $30 million settlement for 120,000 of its members. It seemed like a victory, but the workers were livid: when parceled out, that amounted to less than two days of backpay despite years of 24-hour shifts. (During a closed-door meeting in 2019, a union representative estimated that the stolen wages may total a staggering $6 billion.)
But the tide may be turning. This January, the New York Supreme Court ruled that the DOL must reopen more than 100 wage theft cases, dismissing the agency’s argument that the workers in question had already been compensated under the 1199SEIU deal.
“What’s changing now is how the campaign has grown. What isn’t changing is that we still have [Governor Kathy] Hochul siding with the insurance companies and home care agencies, and not paying the workers,” said Anne Kochman of the Ain’t I a Woman Campaign, the grassroots group behind the rally. “But we’re growing in power and strength. We had some good legal decisions, and we’ll continue to organize.”
While the movement is seeing progress at the state level, it’s also making inroads within city government. On February 18, the City Council will be holding a hearing for the “No More 24 Bill,” sponsored by Council Member Chris Marte, which would ban insurance companies from assigning 24-hour shifts. The legislation had stalled under former Speaker Adrienne Adams, but her successor, Julie Menin, has signaled she may allow it to move forward.
As the rally — the third since last fall — drew to a close, the attendees marched back and forth, ensconced in puffy winter jackets. Their parting message was a warning to the DOL, if anyone inside the austere building could hear: “We’ll be back.”
The Star has contacted Royal Care, ABI, and the DOL, and will update this story with their responses.