Open Letter From Lawyers for the Public Interest in Support of the No More 24 Act
We, the undersigned public interest lawyers, denounce the efforts of the Legal Aid Society (LAS) to block passage of the No More 24 Act, a bill that would abolish the inhumane 24-hour workday for home care workers. We stand with home care workers who have been fighting to end this citywide practice, which affects predominantly immigrant women of color. We call on the NYC City Council and Mayor Mamdani to pass Intro 0303-2026, the No More 24 Act (“the Bill”). We also call on LAS to publicly retract its opposition to the Bill.
The health of thousands of workers has been destroyed by the brutal working conditions associated with 24-hour shifts. The Medicaid patients they care for receive substandard care when aides are sleep-deprived from working 24-hour shifts. With little time to rest and recover from these grueling hours, many aides then suffer debilitating injuries themselves.
Some Legal Aid attorneys have been heavily lobbying elected officials, including the Mayor, to block the Bill. They claim that insurance companies will not fund split shifts and that therefore, 24-hour shifts are necessary in order to keep patients in their homes. This advocacy is misguided, pitting workers against patients and distracting from the root cause of the problem: greedy insurance companies.
Legal Aid should not be lobbying to protect a system that depends on modern-day slavery. It is naive to argue that this Bill would compromise care for patients, when in fact every 24-hour shift puts patients at risk every single day. Home attendants working 24-hour shifts forgo proper sleep and meal breaks for as many as 7 consecutive 24-hour shifts. How is defending insurance companies “in the public interest”?
We are public interest lawyers, and we cannot support a system that is built on workers toiling for 48, 72, 96 and more hours without proper sleep and rest. We cannot be complicit in endangering worker and patient health and safety because of insurance company profits masquerading as “budget considerations”. We know insurance companies earn millions in profits from 24 hour shifts because the law only requires them to pay home care workers for 13 hours.
The concerns of these Legal Aid attorneys are not borne out in practice. Because home care workers have organized, many home care agencies across NYC have already split their 24-hour shifts, and now employ two home attendants to work 12-hour shifts to provide care for the full 24 hours. To our knowledge, no patients have been forced into nursing homes due to this transition.
Shame on Legal Aid for pitting workers against their patients, suggesting a false dichotomy of patients’ wellbeing vs. the health and dignity of the home attendants caring for them. It is in the best interest of both home care workers and their patients to end this practice. If the Bill is approved, the only party that stands to lose is insurance companies, which currently profit from the 11 hours of wages stolen off the backs of workers.
Sincerely,
(List in Formation)
John S Yong, Law Office of John Yong
Nelson Mar, Legal Services Staff Association, Local 2320
Phoebe Lopez, New York Law School
Nicolette Figliozzi
Victoria Ruiz, Member of ALAA
Vittoria Fariello, Balestriere Law
Joane Wong, Labor and Employment Lawyer