SEIU’s Mary Kay Henry: New Rule is Step Forward for Quality Care, Good Jobs Washington D.C.- Mary Kay Henry, President of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), issued the following statement in response the Obama’s Administration’s announced extension of the federal overtime and minimum wage protections to home care workers: “Today is an important day for America’s two million home care workers and the people they care for: the Obama Administration has made good on its promise to extend federal overtime and minimum wage protections to home care work. “This change by the Obama Administration is a step forward both for quality home care and for the good jobs America needs. For too long this vital occupation, upon which the health and independence of millions depend, has been treated as marginal and casual work to be performed under poverty conditions. This has been so, even as the occupation has become among the fastest growing and most vitally important within the American health care system. Home care work is now the second-fastest growing job in America, but the majority of home care workers earn poverty wages, no benefits, and no healthcare coverage. “The value of the measure adopted today is a major step forward towards treating home care work as the important occupation that it is. Our hope is that the new rule will improve the quality of home care by reducing turnover and increasing the number of committed home care workers who enter and stay in the home care profession, creating a foundation on which truly quality care can be built. This hope was among the reasons given by the Department of Labor for its important action -- to encourage home care employers and state health care programs to recruit and retain a broader base of home care workers to meet consumer demand, instead of burning out workers on high hours and low pay. “But this is far from the end of the struggle. We expect Governors, state program administrators, and home care employers to live up to both the letter and spirit of this rule, taking this as a mandate to offer these programs through dedicated and committed workers treated as professionals. It is important to consumers and workers alike that agencies and states not make shortsighted changes to their programs that could reduce benefits or deprive consumers of the consistency of care they receive from their providers. We will work with consumers, states, employers, and the Department of Labor to ensure that this does not happen. “Extending minimum wage and overtime protections is a crucial, and a long overdue, step toward making home care jobs into the good quality jobs that we need to get our economy moving again and to ensure that all Americans have access to the quality care they deserve. “Now more than ever, every job in our country must be a good job that can sustain a family, strengthen our communities and move our country forward. Evelyn Coke, a single mother from Queens who worked long hours she was never paid for, took her case all the way to the Supreme Court but was denied justice. Sadly, Ms. Coke did not live to see fulfilled her quest for the most basic labor protections, but she is with us in spirit today. “Thanks to today’s action by the Department of Labor, home care workers are finally invisible no more. We will continue the struggle by making sure that this measure is implemented and administered in a manner that provides home care workers, and all who depend on them, the dignity and fairness that they all deserve.”
Posted on: Tue, 17 Sep 2013 21:34:07 +0000
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