For about six months during 2013 and 2014, Feng X. Liu spent multiple nights each week at the New York City studio apartment of an elderly man she was assigned to care for as a home health aide.
Overnight, Liu, now 70 years old, was given a small stowaway mattress wedged between her patient’s bed and the portable mattresses of his two daughters, with whom he shared the apartment.
Sleep, though, was rare—throughout the night, Liu said, she helped her patient with frequent bathroom trips, gave him medications and prepared food and drinks.
In spite of the round-the-clock care, Liu’s employer paid her only for 13 hours of that shift, according to a complaint filed in federal court. Those missing wages are at the heart of the lawsuit filed by Liu and five other home health aides, all Chinese women ranging in age from 56 to 70, employed by the same New York City-based company. On Dec. 13, the court approved a settlement of $600,000 from their employer, Scharome Cares Inc., for damages, penalties, and all unpaid wages and overtime.
New York State guidelines and federal regulations mandate that home health aides working 24 hours at a client’s home get eight hours for sleep and three hours of meal breaks, all unpaid. Many home health aides, including the plaintiffs in this case, have argued that this rule routinely leads to underpayment because their patients actually need constant attentive care, leaving the aides little time to sleep or take breaks.
Home health aides in New York...
By Dean Aubrey Caratiquet As part of an intensified campaign against the spread of falsehoods that continue to undermine the integrity of the government and pose a threat to national security, PCO...