Home Attendants Rally Against Wage Theft and 24-Hour Shifts

NYC Volunteers

On March 12, dozens of home attendants and their supporters gathered outside of New York Governor Kathy Hochul’s Manhattan office to demand back pay and shorter shifts. Home attendants, mainly Chinese and Latin American women, have been struggling for their demands for over 10 years now, demanding an end to 24-hour shifts—which at times are scheduled back to back—and also being paid back over $90 million in stolen wages.

These conditions are upheld through collusion between the NY government, their “nonprofit” employers, and even their union, Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 1199, according to the home attendants.

Under NY labor law, domestic workers are only required to be paid for 13 hours of a 24-hour shift if they are given 8 hours of sleep, with at least 5 hours of consecutive sleep, and 3 hours for meals. Home attendants working for the “nonprofits” Chinese-American Planning Council (CPC) and the United Jewish Council report that they are still only paid for 13 hours despite not getting any sleep at all, having 11 hours of wages stolen per shift.

One home attendant told The Worker: “I work 24-hour shifts for the United Jewish Council for 12 years. They say that you sleep, but you can’t sleep when you’re taking care of somebody who’s not in the right mind.”A retired home attendant described to The Worker how she worked on a 24-hour basis and that she couldn’t sleep at all, stating that if the patient demanded her, she would have to “get up instantly”.

The CPC, a “nonprofit”, receives roughly $200 million a year in taxpayer money from the state government according to the Ain’t I A Woman (AIW) Campaign, who is helping organize the workers for their demands. An attendee at the rally told The Worker that when workers attempted to take CPC to court for being owed back pay and overtime pay, their union, SEIU, blocked them in conjunction with CPC and instead forced workers to go through arbitration to settle outside of court for significantly less.

The demands were also brought before the NY Department of Labor (DOL), who dropped the case in 2023. After workers sued the DOL, the NY Supreme Court eventually ruled in October2024 that it was illegal for the DOL to have dropped their case. Home attendants have since been protesting for the DOL to enforce their own laws and give them back their stolen wages. Meanwhile, Governor Hochul’s administration continues to fund the CPC and the DOL continues to certify CPC to receive government funding.

The AIW Campaign described this relationship in a YouTube video, writing how the CPC’s “former board chair even got a job in Governor Hochul’s office. In 2023, Hochul’s Department of Labor (DOL) dismissed workers’ complaint against CPC. And now, New York State’s Supreme Court has ruled that the DOL’s dismissal is illegal! Home attendants are courageously standing up to demand the DOL enforce the law, and CPC pay back the stolen wages and end the 24-hour workdays!”

Over 100 home attendants protested a Wall Street gala CPC hosted in late February where they were met with violent arrests by NYPD. According to the Chinese Staff and Workers’ Association, the police arrested 7 protesters, including a pregnant women and an elderly woman, while a CPC associate snuck into the protest and stole a phone from a journalist who was recording the arrests.

One home attendant spoke about the class nature of the oppression of women workers, pointing out how many of colluding exploiters are women that are exploiting working women, demonstrating that class differentiates more than sex. When asked how they will win their struggle, a home attendant told The Worker, “Fighting, every day, every day, more pressure!”

Interviews with home attendants have been translated from Chinese and Spanish.

Image: Home attendants and their supporters rally outside New York Governor Kathy Hochul’s Manhattan office on 03/12/25.

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