Independent UN human rights experts on Thursday reiterated concerns about a Government-subsidised 24-hour workday system for homecare workers in New York City. The experts said the system may enable exploitative practices and could amount to forced labour under International Labour Organization standards.
The care workers, who are predominantly migrant women, held a hunger strike between late July and early August to protest having to work 24 hours a day while being undercompensated in practice under state law. Under New York State’s Medicaid-funded homecare system, employers must pay wages for 13 hours of a 24-hour shift, based on the assumption that workers use the remaining 11 hours to eat and sleep.
We are seriously concerned that the reported system may enable exploitative practices and that it has a disproportionate impact on migrant women and their families.
The experts said the concentration of migrant women in homecare reflects what they described as the persistent undervaluation of care work and gendered inequalities in labour markets. They said those conditions may expose women to heightened risks of exploitation and abuse.
The UN Human Rights Council-appointed investigators called on local and state authorities to improve working conditions, ensure access to effective remedies, and reform or eliminate the 24-hour workday system in line with international human rights standards. They said homecare workers must be able to enjoy just, favourable and safe working conditions, adequate rest, fair remuneration, protection of their rights and access to effective remedies.