Archive for ‘Advocacy’

Home Care Workers Talk About the Proposed Rule

Posted by on January 24th, 2012 at 10:27 am | 5 Comments »

We asked some of our home care worker members and allies how they felt about the proposed rule to extend Fair Labor Standards Act protections to home care workers. Here’s what they said:

Carolyn Gay

Carolyn Gay, CNA and home care worker

I have been a CNA since 1992, working in private duty with some of the most wonderful patients and families. I am on Social Security now, but I continue to work as a CNA to supplement my income and because I love my patients.

As a CNA, I am a trained professional. I am required by law to be certified and to maintain my skills. I incur the expenses for that training, yet I do not get paid for my travel time, nor am I assured minimum wage. If I worked more than 40 hours a week, I would not get time and a half for that extra time.

As the support system for our patients, their families, the RNs and the doctors, we have earned the right to a living wage. Fast food workers are guaranteed minimum wage and overtime pay, but we caregivers are not. Continue reading »

Celebrating Dr. King’s Legacy

Posted by on January 17th, 2012 at 10:42 am | No Comments »

As Martin Luther King. Jr. Day approached, we here at the Direct Care Alliance found ourselves reflecting on Dr. King’s influence on our lives and work and wondering what he would think about today’s campaign for better jobs for direct care workers. We asked some of our current and past board members to share their thoughts about that.

Here’s what they had to say:

Economic justice for today’s version of “the help”

Almost 50 years ago, when Dr. King went to the Washington Mall with hundreds of thousands of people, there were thousands of domestic workers in the crowd. The domestic worker of the 1950s and ‘60s could be compared to the home care worker of today. They did the cooking and cleaning. They cared for the babies. They cared for the owners of the house when they became sick. And most of them—about 99 percent of them in the South—were African American.

These workers were so closely involved with the lives of the families they worked for that they weren’t even called workers. They were called “the help.” They didn’t get a salary. They just took whatever the owner of the house decided they deserved for the time they worked—and they worked from sunup to sundown. That same way of thinking led to the so-called “companionship exemption” that denies us home care workers the right to Fair Labor Standards Act protections.

Continue reading »

Comment Update: Early Feedback on DOL’s Proposed Home Care Rule

Posted by on January 17th, 2012 at 10:38 am | No Comments »

The comments on the Department of Labor’s proposed rule to extend Fair Labor Standards Act protection to home care workers are surging in faster than DOL staff can post them.

Negative feedback seems to be in the majority at the moment, but there are plenty of eloquent comments from supporters of the proposed rule. We’ve copied a few of them below in hopes that they’ll inspire you to send in your comment, if you haven’t already.

To see more of the comments that posted so far, go to the comments page, click on “View Docket Folder,” check “public submission,” and click on a submitter’s name or a blue HTML button.

To submit your own comment, click on one of the blue “comment due” links if you’re already on the comment page. Or go to the Take Action box on our Respect for Home Care Workers page and download our comment submission guidelines.

Dear Secretary Solis,

Many of my friends and family depend on home care workers to help them live at home. I support the extension of minimum wage and overtime protections provided by the Fair Labor Standards Act to all home care workers. These workers take care of the most important people in their employers’ lives. I know that when workers are treated well they have a better relationship with their employers, which results in better quality care. Thank you for your leadership in moving this proposal forward.

Sincerely,

Ariana Jostad-Laswell Continue reading »

New DCA Resources Make It Easy to Comment on Proposed Rule

Posted by on January 10th, 2012 at 1:50 pm | No Comments »

By proposing to grant home care workers basic labor rights, the Department of Labor (DOL) has taken an important step to correct the longstanding injustice done to these crucial workers. Now it’s up to us to make sure that happens, by registering our support for DOL’s proposed rule to extend Fair Labor Standards Act protections to home care workers.

The comments DOL receives will be a major factor in its decision whether or not to enact the proposed rule, so it’s important that they hear from as many supporters as possible. To help you submit your comment, DCA has prepared new resources that guide you through process step by step.

Please visit the Take Action box on our Respect for Home Care Workers page and add your voice to the growing chorus. Tell DOL to do the right thing for home care workers and the people who rely on them!

The public comment period ends on February 27.

DCA to Build on Momentum in 2012

Posted by on January 3rd, 2012 at 1:41 pm | 2 Comments »

DCA Board Chair Tracy Dudzinski

Dear Friends,

Thanks to the hard work of our direct care worker leaders and allies, we made a lot of progress in 2011, and there are many opportunities for continued success in 2012.

As DCA’s board chair, I am incredibly proud of the leadership and vision of DCA’s executive director, Leonila Vega, as well as DCA’s staff, members, volunteers, and allies. 2011 was a year of many milestones for the direct care workforce and the Direct Care Alliance, and I’d like to share some of the highlights with you. They only scratch the surface of what we accomplished in 2011, but they’re proof that our movement is growing stronger and direct care workers’ voices are being heard. I also want to tell you about some of the things we have planned for 2012.

The most exciting developments in 2011 were the responses we got from both the U.S. Department of Labor and Congress to the persistent advocacy of DCA and its allies to extend basic labor protections to home care workers. Just last month, DOL proposed a rule that would extend minimum wage and overtime protections to home care workers. And earlier last year, the Direct Care Job Quality Improvement Act was introduced by Senator Casey (PA) in the Senate and Representative Sánchez (CA) in the House. Continue reading »

DOL Now Accepting Comments on Proposed Home Care Rule

Posted by on December 27th, 2011 at 1:52 pm | 1 Comment »

DCA Board Chair Tracy Dudzinski (fourth from right) stood behind the President as he announced the proposed rule.

The new rule proposed by the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) to extend basic labor protections to home care workers is now open for public comment.

DOL will collect comments on the rule for the next two months. It will then weigh all the comments it has received and decide whether to amend and/or enact the rule.Opponents are already organizing to tell DOL not to enact it, so workers and our allies must rally as well, to make sure that our voices are heard and this injustice is overturned.

As President Obama made clear when he announced the proposed rule (see video below), DOL wants to end this injustice, but it needs your support. It takes just a few minutes to help ensure that home care workers get the basic rights they deserve.

Please submit your comment now if you’re ready, or check back with us next week, when we’ll have easily customized comment letter templates and other materials to help guide you through the process.

To comment, visit our advocacy center, go to Take Action, and click on the link that leads to the comment submission page.

A Landmark Day for Home Care Workers

Posted by on December 20th, 2011 at 12:03 am | 5 Comments »

Last Thursday was a big day in the history of the fight for direct care worker rights, and I was lucky enough to be right there in Washington, DC, representing DCA and my fellow home care workers when President Obama made the announcement. (That’s me in the video, right behind the President’s left shoulder). The President was telling the press about a proposed rule that would finally give home care workers Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) protections.

I felt truly honored and humbled as I headed in to the Department of Labor on Thursday morning and met the other home care workers who were there for the announcement. We got to meet the staff who had made this proposed rule change a reality, who are all very passionate about correcting this injustice against home care workers. It was strange because they treated us like royalty. I told them that I wanted to thank them for all their hard work, but they kept saying we workers were the ones who deserved to be thanked for all that we do.  Continue reading »

Judge Temporarily Blocks 20% Pay Cut for Family Caregivers

Posted by on December 6th, 2011 at 10:58 am | No Comments »

As home health agency owner Tim Plant explained in a September 20 DCA blog post, Minnesota’s new budget included a 20 percent pay cut for personal care assistants who provide care to a relative. The cut was to have gone into effect October 1, but a dedicated group of activists worked hard to convince lawmakers and Department of Human Services administrative staff that it should not be enacted. The activists succeeded in getting the cut tabled, but more action is needed to ensure that it is permanently defeated, as Vice President Brigette Menger-Anderson of the Direct Support Professional Association of Minnesota (DSPAM) explains in  DSPAM’s newsletter. See below for the beginning of her article and a link to the rest.

In the last newsletter, we provided you with a legislative update, focusing on the unprecedented 20% rate cut for providers who were billing for PCA services provided by caregivers of family members. This statute deeply impacted the disability and DSP community immediately. Many providers reduced the wages of their workers to compensate for the reduction. Some DSPs recently blogged on the DCA that they are now down to $7.75 an hour and can’t even afford the gas to get to provide the supports that are needed. DSPs wrote into DSPAMs Facebook page and shared that they live in small rural towns and feel that it is unlikely to get someone else to fill these shifts and that the providers are banking on the genuine caring and giving nature of DSPs to continue to do their jobs.

What we need for our legislators and the general public to understand is that direct support workers are provided a service that is the least costly and offers the most opportunity for dignity and independence to the individuals who receive direct care services. Read the rest in the Winter 2011 I Am DSPAM newsletter, starting at the top of the 11th page.

Life Without Overtime: I Wish I Could Take Weekends Off

Posted by on November 8th, 2011 at 10:37 am | 1 Comment »

Home care worker Evelyn Coke fought for the right to overtime pay.

The home care worker whose story you are about to read chose to remain anonymous for fear of losing her job.

I receive $7.75 per hour. We home care workers don’t get paid overtime in Texas, so I usually work 50 or 60 hours a week. Sometimes it’s less, but sometimes it’s more. Usually I have to work every day of the week.

I work for two agencies now, one for 20 hours a week and the other for 20 or more, sometimes more than 40. But even when I worked for just one company, I didn’t get time and a half for all that overtime. I don’t get any benefits either.

I got into this work after I started taking care of my mom and my dad in 1987. My friend said, “Do you want to care for old people?” I said “No way! I don’t want to do that kind of job. I just want to take care of my mom and my dad.” Then I didn’t find another job. I told my friend I’d try it, but as soon as I found another job I’ll quit. But I never tried to find another job, because once I started doing this work I found out that I love it. Continue reading »

Protecting the Social Safety Net

Posted by on November 8th, 2011 at 10:32 am | 1 Comment »

CNA and DCA member Kelly Gessner testifying at a Senate briefing last week.

UPDATE: Help us fight to preserve these crucial programs by emailing your elected representatives. Our action alert makes it easy to send them a letter.

Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security are under attack. Over the past several months, these social safety programs have become the focus of a political battle over what our government needs to do to create jobs and stimulate our struggling economy. This is alarming because these programs are fundamental to the already shaky economic security of our seniors, people with disabilities, and low-income families—a group that includes many direct care workers and their families, as well as most of the people they assist.

Unfortunately, the debate about whether to cut social safety net programs is being driven by politics, not the realities that millions of low-income families and individuals face every day. The Direct Care Alliance and many of our allies are waging campaigns to preserve these crucial programs. Continue reading »

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