More than 100 current and former home care workers chanting “No more 24” picketed outside the New York State Department of Labor in Brooklyn, saying that compensating them for only 11 hours while requiring they be present 24 hours violates state law.

Many of them, and hundreds of other workers, have filed unfair wage cases with the Department of Labor, sometimes winning and facing trouble collecting, with many more in limbo awaiting decisions for years.

The group, primarily women, largely Chinese, Hispanic and African American, rallied Oct. 22 outside the Shirley A. Chisolm State office building, with the DOL eight floors above, protesting 13 hours of pay for 24-hour shifts that they say violates state law.

They marched not far from a plaque on the wall touting Shirley Anita St. Hill Chisolm, 1924-2005, as the first African-American woman elected to the United States Congress, and someone known for her “outspoken advocacy of civil rights and gender equality in America.”

The workers said they were fighting for exactly that, amid what they see as sort of modern sweatshop mentality in this industry.

No More 24

Some others argue that 24-hour shifts provide needed care to the extremely ill and disabled, while workers argue there is another option.

Some companies, they said, already shifted to12-hour split shifts, while others routinely use 24-hour shifts, paying for 13 hours, which Medicaid permits. The workers said regardless of Medicaid, the practice violates New York State...

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