Workers Charge Widespread Racism and Rampant Wage Theft Throughout NYC’s Home Care Industry

New York City home care worker Marlene Urquhart says she worked round-the-clock shifts for seven years in the employ 1st Help HomeCare and is owed more than $260,000 in stolen wages. Photos/Joe Maniscalco

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By Joe Maniscalco

Sixty-two-year-old Queens resident Marlene Urquhart spent seven years working round-the-clock shifts for a home care agency located on Ralph Avenue in Brooklyn called 1st Help HomeCare.

The mother of four quit in March 2025 alleging 1st Help HomeCare and its owner Rita Cohen owed her more than $260,000 in unpaid wages following the death of Urquhart’s primary patient that same year.

“They tried to send other workers there but the [patient] screamed and said, ‘No, I don’t want them here. I want Marlene to stay here,’” Urquhart told Work-Bites outside 1st Help HomeCare’s storefront on Sept. 9. “I worked 24-hours from June 28, 2018—and for Rita [Cohen] to say that I did not work 24 hours she’s lying because the patient couldn’t do anything for herself. I was there for all those seven years and Rita [Cohen] has been stealing from me.”

Home care workers and No More 24 activists rallying on Ralph Avenue in Brooklyn this week denounce 1st Help HomeCare and widespread racism throughout New York City’s home care industry.

Community activists and advocates for New York City Council Intro. 303—the No More 24 bill—turned out Wednesday afternoon on Ralph Avenue in support of Urquhart and other Black and Caribbean home care workers they say are routinely targeted for exploitation across New York City’s home care industry.

“We need to stand up,” Craig Moore, a healthcare worker and member of the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists, said. “That’s why we need New York City, New York State to pass laws like Intro. 303 to make sure that this kind of exploitation doesn’t happen. We’ve got to put a stop to it now.”

The No More 24 bill seeks to finally put an end to the 24-hour workday and the legalized wage theft that’s baked into the system—but the legislation has just 14 co-sponsors in the City Council, including Public Advocate Jumaane Williams.

Urquhart said her late patient’s family paid 1st Help HomeCare for round-the-clock care out-of-pocket—but that Cohen and the company only paid her for 12 hours up until 2021 when they started paying her for just 13 hours work each shift.

No one from 1st Help HomeCare wanted to talk about Urquhart’s claims when Work-Bites entered the premises this week seeking comment.

1st Help HomeCare, a.k.a 24/7 Homecare, is located at 2414 Ralph Ave. in Brooklyn.

Urquhart has filed a wage theft complaint with the New York State Department of Labor. But she accuses the agency of bias and siding with the employer in the case, offering her just half of the money she insists she is actually owed.

During a recent online hearing with the DOL Urquhart said, “the judge muted the call when I tried to explain myself” and that “you could feel the hate coming through the screen.”

“It’s not right for Black and Caribbean workers to go though what I’m experiencing,” Urquhart continued.

Fellow home care worker Ilene Brooks told Work-Bites that she is owed over $100,000 after working round-the-clock shifts for five years at another home care agency in New York City. That home care agency, Brooks added, forced employees to falsify their hours and instructed them to clock in for 13-hour shifts.

1st Help HomeCare attempted to intimidate and later called police on demonstrators rallying outside the premises on Sept. 9.

“Shame on the DOL for taking the agency’s side instead of the workers,” Brooks said outside 1st Help HomeCare on Wednesday. “It’s clear they don’t investigate the agency, or else it would be obvious that they are lying. I am fighting for my stolen wages and urge all other women to join me and Marlene.”

Selena Roper, a student supporter with the Jamaica-Brooklyn Working Group, said that every time Black women try to fight for justice, “the bar is raised.”

“It is raised to keep them out,” Roper said. “Only by coming together as a community to support our Black women who have been exploited can we ensure their victory in this fight.”

New York City Council Speaker Julie Menin pledged to bring Intro. 303 to the floor for a vote way back in March—but quickly folded under pressure from District Council 37 Executive Director Henry Garrido who argues his members want to work round-the-clock shifts and that mandating 12-hour split shifts will jeopardize patient care.

Urquhart told Work-Bites that Intro. 303 needs to be signed into law.

“No more twenty-four-seven,” she said. “Share the shift.”

No More 24 advocates plan a large rally in support of Intro. 303 outside City Hall on Oct. 3.