A bill titled No More 24 is currently being discussed by members of New York’s City Council, which would ostensibly end a brutal policy that allows home care agencies to force their employees to work consecutive 24-hour shifts and only pay them for 13 hours.
Home care aides are caregivers who carry out vital and intimate assistance to elderly and disabled patients in their home residences. This includes helping patients maintain their hygiene and grooming, grocery shopping, cleaning the patient’s home and cooking and feeding them. Home health aides also coordinate with other health care professionals and assist patients in taking their medication, checking vital signs, and scheduling doctor’s visits. The critical service allows many vulnerable patients to remain in their homes and maintain their independence.
Under the current set up sanctioned by a New York State Department of Labor, home health aides are compensated for 13 hours of work for a 24-hour-day. This is justified under the pretense that aides can sleep and eat in their patient’s homes and therefore should not be paid for that time. State law mandates an unpaid eight-hour period for sleep and three hours for meals. It goes without saying, that aides are also not paid for the long hours they spend on public transit getting to and back from their patient’s homes.
The fact this policy has been in place for so long is an indictment of the Democratic Party, which has long controlled most of the political...
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