The Legal Aid Society and the National Center for Law and Economic Justice secured a court order reopening hundreds of wage claims and secured class certification in litigation against the New York State Department of Labor (NYSDOL) on behalf of home care aides forced to work 24-hour shifts for only 13 hours of pay.

The order is the latest development in a multi-year struggle to secure restitution for home care workers who experience wage theft. New York law permits employers to pay these workers for just 13 hours of each 24-hour shift, if workers receive an eight-hour period for sleep, including five uninterrupted hours, and three hours for meals. However, many aides have long said this practice was impossible, given their patients’ round-the-clock needs. In addition to missing out on sleep and adequate pay, these conditions also make home care workers extremely vulnerable to occupational injuries that often lead to permanent disability.

“This decision forces the reopening of long-denied wage claims and moves home care workers significantly closer to justice after years of being underpaid for round-the-clock work,” said Michael Diller, an attorney in the Employment Law Unit at Legal Aid.

“By granting class certification, the court recognized what workers have long known: you cannot shortchange people who labor around the clock and then hide behind an unlawful rule to avoid accountability,” he continued. “This ruling allows these workers to stand together and demand the wages the law requires.”

“When the NYSDOL closed our clients’ cases, it betrayed hundreds of workers who have been fighting – some for more than a decade – to merely recover what they have already earned: a day’s wages for a day’s work,” said Carmela Huang with the National Center for Law and Economic Justice. “This order is a vindication for these aides and a testament to their strength of spirit.”