Home care workers in New York have announced plans for another hunger strike after a promised city council vote on legislation to end mandatory 24-hour shifts failed to materialise. The workers, who say they are paid for only 13 hours of work despite being on duty around the clock, camped outside city hall last month and ended their strike only after securing a commitment from council members to vote on the No More 24 Act.
Zishun Ning, an organiser with the Chinese Staff and Workers Association, said the movement was gaining momentum. “We are very confident that our movement is getting bigger and there will be more pressure to do the right thing,” he said. The bill, introduced in 2022, would require agencies to split overnight home care assignments into two 12-hour shifts and cap weekly hours at 56, with steep fines for retaliation against workers who refuse 24-hour shifts.
Under current New York labour law, agencies that assign workers to live-in 24-hour shifts are only required to pay them for 13 hours, classifying the remaining 11 hours as designated sleep and meal time, even though many aides must care for patients throughout the night. Patients authorised for 24-hour care include those with advanced dementia, severe disabilities or terminal conditions who cannot be left unattended.
Lai Yee Chan, 71, entered the industry after the garment industry collapsed following the September 11 attacks. She said her agency pushed her into mandatory 24-hour shifts from 2007. “There was just no time to sleep,” she said through a translator. She relied on the work for health insurance for her family of five, but said her agency paid only $200 in overtime after years of unpaid work.
Home care is one of the fastest-growing sectors in the US economy, with the Bureau of Labor Statistics projecting more than 70,000 new jobs by 2033. In New York alone, it is a $13bn industry, yet the workforce—mainly immigrants and women of colour—remains among the lowest paid, with a median annual wage of $34,900 nationally as of May 2024.
