New York City home care aides push to end 24-hour shifts: ‘Destroyed my body’
Zhu Nu Jun has worked as a home care aide in New York City for eight years, working three 24-hour shifts a week. That increased to four 24-hour shifts a week last year.
It can be brutal and intense work.
“I’ve had enough of these long hours of very difficult work that have destroyed my body,” she said “My fingers are already deformed. I have a knee problem, my eyesight has worsened, my hair is falling out. I can’t even pick up a pen with my right arm due to all the work of carrying patients and this has happened to many workers I know. Only New York City has the 24 hour one shift.”
But the tough labor is only part of the issue that she faces. Many home care workers in New York city also say that their industry is set up to practice large scale wage theft with some of their work hours effectively being unpaid.
Home care workers claim the 13 hours of pay they receive for 24-hour shifts are supposed to include at least five hours of uninterrupted sleep and meal breaks, but that doesn’t occur given the lack of enforcement and often serious medical needs their patients require.
Jun says according to the department of labor calculations, she’s actually owed $235,000 in unpaid back wages for work she has done on these shifts.
“At night, I can’t sleep for even one hour. The patient, day and night, needs to get to the bathroom. I have to carry the patient to their wheelchair and then the bathroom,” she said.
Recently, home care workers in New York City protested outside of city hall to demand a vote on a bill that would limit the number of hours that can be assigned to those who currently work 24-hour shifts and are only compensated for 13 hours.
The bill, which has a majority of support in the city council, has yet to receive a vote and
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