NYC Home Care Workers Won’t Let Mayor Mamdani Water Down ‘No More 24’ Bill
Home care workers rallying for passage of the “No More 24” bill on Day 1 of their sit-in outside the gates of City Hall. Photos/Joe Maniscalco
By Joe Maniscalco
Fifteen months ago, then mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani told home care workers rallying in support of the “No More 24” bill that round-the-clock shifts in the industry must end.
This week, those workers started a daily sit-in outside the gates of City Hall to hold the new mayor to account—and they got some surprise help from City Council Speaker Julie Menin, too.
The Speaker visited home care workers on Mar. 19—Day 2 of their sit-in, promising to bring legislation ending round-the-clock shifts to a vote next month without any changes being made to the “No More 24” bill—now known as Intro. 303.
“We’re working really closely with the speaker and we have communicated with the administration as well,” Council Member Christopher Marte, sponsor of the “No More 24” bill, told Work-Bites on Day 1 of the home care worker sit-in. “We’re steadfast, we’re working hard, and hopefully we can get to the point where we can vote on this.”
“We’re happy to talk, whether it’s my colleagues or folks in the industry—but our fundamental line in the sand is to make sure we end the 24-hour practice.”
Speaker Menin’s visit on Day 2 of the home care worker sit-it reportedly followed an eleventh-hour attempt by District Council 37 Executive Director Henry Garrido and Mayor Mamdani to kill the bill before it could be voted on later this month.
Neither the Mayor’s Office or District Council 37 responded to requests for comment on this story.
Cassio Mendoza, Deputy Press Secretary for Economic Justice at the Office of the Mayor, told another news outlet, however, that Mayor Mamdani is “committed to working alongside home care workers, the Council, and the state government to pass stronger protections that improve working conditions for caregivers and ensure they can provide the high-quality care their patients deserve.”
Despite his earlier rhetoric on the campaign trail, what Mayor Mamdani is reportedly actually seeking to do is water down the “No More 24” bill so that round-the-clock shifts—denounced by home workers themselves as “violence against women’’—would be voluntary.
“Yeah—that completely guts the bill. It maintains the status quo. No More 24 would actually just outright ban the practice.”
“Yeah—that completely guts the bill,” home care worker spokesperson Sarah Ahn told Work-Bites on Thursday. “It maintains the status quo. No More 24 would actually just outright ban the practice. What these employment agencies are already doing is illegal—they tell workers to sign the paper that you got your five or eight hours of sleep, and your three hours for meal breaks—or give up your job. How is the mayor gonna prevent that being the form of voluntary consent?”
New York City home care attendants subjected to mandatory 24-hour shifts are predominantly older women of color—and the legal fiction that institutionalizes their ongoing exploitation states they only have to be paid for 13 hours of work because the rest of the time they are supposed to be off the clock taking meal breaks or sleeping.
Theoretically, home care workers can claim additional hours if they file paperwork stating they failed to get at least five hours of uninterrupted sleep during a shift.
But many workers interested in keeping their jobs report being pressured not to seek those additional hours—or else. Some are owed hundreds of thousands of dollars in unpaid wages.
“We’ve been working on this [No Moree 24 bill] for a really long time,” Council Member Marte further told Work-Bites this week. “We have spoken to a lot of stakeholders, we’ve taken some of their recommendations and we’ll keep on listening. Our door is always open. We’re happy to talk, whether it’s my colleagues or folks in the industry—but our fundamental line in the sand is to make sure we end the 24-hour practice.”
Fulfill Your Promise, Zohran: Home care workers send a clear message to Mayor Mamdani on Day 1 of their sit-in in support of the “No More 24” bill.
Home care worker Nu Jun Zhu, 62, spent a solid decade working 24-hour shifts before retiring earlier this year. She estimates that she is owed more than $200,000 in unpaid wages.
In 2023, the New York State Department of Labor determined another home care worker named Dellanira Soto was owed more than $330,000. Soto spent five years working round-the-clock shifts for an outfit called Royal Care while only being paid for roughly half the time she worked.
“We hoped the new mayor, the new speaker would pass the bill,” Zhu told Work-Bites on Day 1 of the City Hall sit-in. “We believe they will do the right thing and pass the bill. Currently, we have not gotten a clear answer, so the sit-in will continue every day.”
District Council 37 is the largest public sector union in New York City with more than 150,000 rank and file members. But far fewer than 10,000 of them work as private sector home care workers. Many more New York City home care workers are members of 1199 SEIU.
Last month, the union told Work-Bites home care workers should be paid for every hour that they are required to be in the homes of consumers.”
“1199SEIU fully supports legislation ending 24-hour shifts that does not place unfair limitations on workers’ hard won right to earn overtime and includes full Medicaid funding for the additional hours to prevent consumers from being forced into nursing homes and subsequent job losses for their dedicated caregivers,” a spokesperson said.