Peggie Smith
“Federal reform is urgently needed to provide home care workers with the compensation and respect they deserve,” says Peggie Smith.
Smith, who is the Murray Family Professor of Law at the University of Iowa College of Law and a graduate of Harvard Law, is talking about a U.S. Supreme Court decision that excluded home care workers from protection under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). The court said the workers were providing companionship services.
In Protecting Home Care Workers under the Fair Labor Standards Act, (PDF) the second in a series of Direct Care Alliance policy briefs, Smith says the decision “threatens to destabilize the home care industry, erode the precarious economic status of home care workers, and undermine the quality of care that they provide to home care clients.”
She outlines two approaches the federal government could take to reverse the ruling:
1. Amend the FLSA to explicitly include home care workers; and
2. Revise Department of Labor (DOL) regulations to significantly limit the reach of the companionship exemption.
Smith recommends that the government do both, with the DOL taking immediate action to revise the companionship exemption while Congress works to reverse the impact of the Supreme Court decision by passing the Fair Home Health Care Act.
Fixing an injustice
“Professor Smith points out that U.S. Department of Labor Secretary Hilda Solis can immediately fix this injustice by simply implementing rules that had already been developed by the Clinton Administration,” says Leonila Vega, executive director of the Direct Care Alliance.
As the attorney who argued the case told the Supreme Court, it is unjust to deny home care workers a right that applies to other social servants. “[P]olice and fire personnel are covered, hospital employees are covered, nursing home employees are covered, and other providers of essential services are covered,” he wrote. ”Why should homecare workers uniquely carry the burden of society’s need for their services?”
Ask U.S. Department of Labor Secretary Solis to include home care workers in the Federal Fair Labor Standards Act
Related news and resources
The DCA sponsors a trip to DC, where one of the asks is that Congresspeople sign a letter to Secretary Solis, asking her to undo the FLSA exemption
37 members of Congress sign the letter to Secretary Solis
Elise Nakhnikian
Communications Director
Direct Care Alliance
I would like to see us direct care workers get earned time off and paid vacations.
The girls in the office at the agency that I work at get earned time and paid vacations. We do all the work and earn the money that pays for their vacations. I would like to see that same benefit go to us that work the long hard hours…
Please have this be a benefit that you fight to get for us….Thank You for listening, Kathy Fetha P.S.S.
Hello my name is Sadije Haliti i am a home care provider in Tacoma Wa. i take care of my step son 24/7 and i feel that i do not get the compensation i deserve and in my understanding every home care worker deserves better compensation more respect for what they do. I would like all the home care workers to be treated equally as any other worker would be treated. i wanted to tell you i beleive what you stand for and i support you the whole way.
Thank you
Sadije Haliti
Thank you so much for everything, everyone is doing to help the direct care workers. The treatment we, direct Care Workers, get from the labor law, is not FAIR. I say it is not FAIR. Every worker; Direc Care Workers, bankers, teachers, doctors, polices… need to be treated equal. We need or must fight, fight and fight to obtain equal treatment from the labor law as others workers, and to receive proper respect and compensation for the work that we do and love so much to do it.
I urge every Direct Care Worker to be a member of local Direct Care Workers Association. We need everyone. We are 3 millions Direct Care workers, how many are members of Direct Care Workers Association? Think about!
My big thanks to the local Association and to Direct Care Alliance. You are going a wonderful Job.
I encourage all DCW’s to stand up and let their voice be heard. We need to join with the Direct Care Alliance and make some noise. The only way to make change is to have everyone telling their story, personal stories are what makes the difference.
I applaude all DCW’s who have stepped up and taken on a leadership role. This will show other DCW’s what a difference they can make and help the public realize how important our work is and that we do deserve the respect that any other public servant receives.
Please contact your elected officials and ask them to encourage a change to the FSLA, by including homecare workers. We do important work and deserve fair compensation and respect.
Tracy Dudzinski
Direct Care Worker/DCA Board Member