Adopted from www.LatinoJustice.org:
Virginia & Ambinder, LLP and LatinoJustice PRLDEF today filed a lawsuit NY HHAs v Fadmo Home and Home Health Care Agency, INC. in the New York State Supreme Court on behalf of seven home health care aides who allege they have experienced systemic wage theft, unsafe work conditions, as well as other violations at their job.
The plaintiffs are New York home health care workers who are or were employed by Fadmo Home and Home Health Care Agency, Inc. Home health aides care for homebound, disabled, and elderly clients in their homes.
According to the plaintiffs, Fadmo violated New York State labor laws by regularly requiring them to work in excess of ten hours per day, without providing the proper hourly compensation for all hours worked, including failing to pay the lawful minimum wage rate, overtime compensation for all hours worked in excess of 40 hours in any given week, and “spread of hours” compensation, which requires employers to pay hourly employees an extra hour of minimum wage for work days that go over 10 hours or if their hours are split and not consecutive
“My patient had issues with mobility, and I had to help her move around the apartment”, said one of the plaintiffs in the case. “The patient would yell and bang on the wall to wake me up when they needed to be changed or taken to the bathroom at night, never allowing me to get five hours of uninterrupted sleep nor three hours of mealtimes as the law requires.”
According to the home health care workers, throughout their employment they were forced to work back-to-back 24-hour shifts even though they did not “live” in the homes of their patients. According to one of the plaintiffs who started taking care of her patient in August of 2019, she worked three 24-hour shifts per week until February 2020. Plaintiffs also mention that when they worked 24-hour shifts, Fadmo systematically paid them for only 13 hours of each 24-hour shift. In addition to this they did not receive regularly scheduled work-free uninterrupted periods to sleep for five or more hours as law requires.
"This case is important to shine a light on what home health aide workers in New York City have been fighting for over the past decade, fair pay for their labor,” said Rafaela Uribe, Associate Counsel for Racial Justice at LatinoJustice PRLDEF. “Our plaintiffs exemplify an industry that relies on the exploitation of women, immigrants, and other marginalized people. We hope these exploitative labor practices end and that both home health aide workers, and the clients that rely on their support, are provided with the type of care they deserve.”
Fadmo is charged with failure to pay proper wages in accordance with the Wage Parity Act, preserve records of the hours worked and breaks taken by the plaintiffs and provide appropriate sleeping facilities as required by New York labor laws, which it is required to do by law, and which facilitates proper wage payment and accountability.
"It is abominable that home health care agencies expect home health aides, who are mostly immigrant women of color, to work 24-hour shifts caring for elderly and disabled residents of New York and not pay them for all hours worked," said Lía Fiol-Matta, Senior Counsel and lead attorney in the case. “Home health care is hard work, requiring attendants to be alert and ready to assist at all hours of the day or night. Not paying home attendants according to the law is wage theft, plain and simple, and must stop."
According to New York law it is illegal to hire someone for a 24-hour shift and pay them for only 13 hours if they can sleep eight hours, five of which must be consecutive, and take three work-free meal breaks of one hour. This “13-Hour Rule” is consistently violated in the home health care industry as home attendants must assist individuals with significant physical and mental needs and disabilities that require almost constant attention and care.
Now that the lawsuit has been filed Fadmo Home and Home Health Care Agency, Inc. will now have 30 days to answer the suit.
