Home care workers celebrated a court victory this month requiring the NY State Department of Labor to re-open wage theft cases it illegally dropped, and to enforce the labor law.

In an article on the decision, Documented NY reported that, in 2019, in response to “widespread noncompliance with the law, the New York Court of Appeals ruled that if workers are not given the required sleep and meal breaks, home care agencies must pay workers for each hour of a 24-hour shift they worked.

“Home care workers have alleged that CPC, as well as other home care agencies, have continued to only pay them for 13-hour shifts. 

“Despite years of filing wage theft claims with the DOL, more than 100 workers had their cases dropped by the Department of Labor in 2023, with the agency arguing that it dropped the individual cases because the workers’ grievances were being arbitrated separately by their union, 1199-SEIU. In turn, workers sued the DOL in 2023. In 2024, the New York State Supreme Court denied the DOL’s motion to dismiss the lawsuits.”

AM New York reported that “the decision comes several years after 1199SEIU announced an industry-wide $34 million arbitration settlement between the union and over 42 home care agencies that it achieved through forced arbitration, a legal mechanism that often stops individual workers from seeking the full extent of stolen wage claims. 

“The settlement applied to about tens of thousands of workers who claim they regularly had their wages stolen on 24-hour shifts. Home care worker advocacy groups like the Ain’t I A Woman campaign, which helped organize the rally, criticized the settlement for not delivering enough for their workers. Many like Chen opted not to accept the union’s settlement, to instead pursue the full extent of their stolen wages in individual cases, which would be more costly for the home care agencies.

“After the union reached its settlement with the home care agencies, the DOL dropped investigations into unionized home care workers — even those that opted not to accept the payment in order to pursue a full payout in court.”

On January 2nd, the NYS Supreme Court ruled that the DOL must re-open the cases, a hard-fought victory for home care workers.