The Legal Aid Society and The National Center for Law and Economic Justice have filed a lawsuit against the New York State Department of Labor (NYSDOL) on behalf of home care aides who are forced to work 24-hour shifts for only 13 hours of compensation.

The suit seeks to reopen a years-long NYSDOL investigation into the stolen wages of 24-hour home care aides. Despite finding “overwhelmingly corroborative” evidence that home care aides assigned to work 24-hour shifts are systematically subject to wage theft by being forced to work continuously while being paid less than the minimum wage and receiving little to no overtime pay, the NYSDOL suddenly closed hundreds of unpaid wage claims filed by home care aides.

Although no explanation was provided to the aides before their cases were closed, the NYSDOL afterwards justified the closures by pointing to a new “rule” that it would not investigate claims filed by home care aides who are subject to mandatory arbitration agreements.

NYSDOL’s union ad hoc arbitration rule should be annulled, and all unpaid wage claims should be investigated fully so home care workers can get full restitution for their hours worked.

“Home care workers experienced an unconscionable level of wage theft by being forced to work full 24-hour shifts for only 13 hours of pay,” said Richard Blum, an attorney with The Legal Aid Society’s Employment Law Unit. “NYSDOL should be securing justice for these vulnerable workers – not throwing them under the bus with an arbitrary and illegitimate rule that leaves them shortchanged.”

“We won’t sit still when government agencies break the law,” he continued. “Home care workers deserve complete restitution for their unpaid wages, and we will continue to hold NYSDOL accountable until that happens.”