Home Care Workers, Disability Community Advocates urge Congress to Support Fair Home Health Care Act
In Congressional testimony this month, SEIU Healthcare joined home care workers and disability community advocates in support of legislation that would close a loophole that denies home care workers overtime and minimum wage protections.
The Fair Home Health Care Act, introduced by Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) in the Senate and Rep. Lynn Woolsey (D-Calif.) in the House, was inspired by the plight of 73 year-old home care worker Evelyn Coke of New York. After more than 20 years of work that sometimes entailed four 24-hour days a week, sleeping at a client's home, and rarely receiving time-and-a-half compensation for the overtime hours, Ms. Coke sued her employer. In June, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Coke, and one million caregivers like her, could be denied overtime pay and minimum wage under the "companionship exemption" of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), which categorizes home care workers as casual helpers, like babysitters.
"Excluding these workers from the minimum standards contained in the FLSA is both unsound labor and employment policy and unsound long term care policy as we face a growing shortage of workers willing and able to perform these essential services," testified Craig Becker, SEIU lead counsel in Ms. Coke's Supreme Court case. "Today's homecare workers can no longer be compared to the neighborhood teenager who baby sits on Friday night."
When the FLSA was extended to domestic employees in 1974, family members, neighbors and friends largely provided home care. Since then the homecare industry has experienced explosive growth - with more than one million home care workers caring for the elderly and people with disabilities in their homes. Yet they are excluded from basic protections of the FLSA.
"This change is long overdue. We all know that consumers recognize and deeply appreciate the professional roles of home care workers - it's high time that our federal laws recognize this as well," said David Rolf, President of SEIU Healthcare Workers - 775 Northwest.
SEIU Healthcare - 775NW represents over 32,000 members, including 29,000 homecare workers, the majority of whom live in Washington State.