Many home care agencies only pay their workers for 13 hours of a 24-hour shift, despite the care these critical workers provide during the overnight hours.  For nearly a decade, Menken Simpson & Rozger LLP has been fighting for the rights of home care workers to get paid for every hour of their work, filing numerous lawsuits to get these workers the pay they deserve. 

The New York Court of Appeals dealt a setback to home care workers in 2019, ruling that they only had to be paid for the overnight hours if they were unable to get eight hours of sleep, and three hours for meals each night. The ruling left it to the lower courts to decide if these workers could band together and bring their claims as a class action  Obviously, home attendants caring for their patients, who frequently suffer from dementia, do not get to relax during the night. In a lawsuit brought against New York Health Care, Inc., our firm was able to show that the company’s home care workers’ wage claims could be brought together in one case.  As a result, Justice Larry D. Martin of Kings County Supreme Court issued a ruling last week that our firm’s lawsuit against New York Health Care, Inc. could proceed as a class action.  All home attendants who worked for New York Health Care from June 22, 2005 to the present and who worked 24-hour shifts are a part of the case.  Menken Simpson & Rozger LLP will do the utmost to secure these workers’ long-denied wages in the coming trial. 

Read the decision here. Any New York Health Care home attendant with questions about the case can contact Jason Rozger.