More than 100 current and former home care workers chanting “No more 24” picketed outside the New York State Department of Labor in Brooklyn, saying that compensating them for only 11 hours while requiring they be present 24 hours violates state law.

Many of them, and hundreds of other workers, have filed unfair wage cases with the Department of Labor, sometimes winning and facing trouble collecting, with many more in limbo awaiting decisions for years.

The group, primarily women, largely Chinese, Hispanic and African American, rallied Oct. 22 outside the Shirley A. Chisolm State office building, with the DOL eight floors above, protesting 13 hours of pay for 24-hour shifts that they say violates state law.

They marched not far from a plaque on the wall touting Shirley Anita St. Hill Chisolm, 1924-2005, as the first African-American woman elected to the United States Congress, and someone known for her “outspoken advocacy of civil rights and gender equality in America.”

The workers said they were fighting for exactly that, amid what they see as sort of modern sweatshop mentality in this industry.

Some others argue that 24-hour shifts provide needed care to the extremely ill and disabled, while workers argue there is another option.

Some companies, they said, already shifted to12-hour split shifts, while others routinely use 24-hour shifts, paying for 13 hours, which Medicaid permits. The workers said regardless of Medicaid, the practice violates New York State labor laws.

New York State labor law indicates that when workers don’t obtain at least five hours of uninterrupted sleep, they must be paid for the full 24-hour shift.

“No more 24, No more 24,” Zishun Ning, of the Chinese Staff and Workers’ Association, said. “Governor Hochul, enforce labor law.”

The workers focused on Gov. Kathy Hochul as the first female governor, and someone they see as sidestepping this issue.

The Department of Labor a day earlier, organizers said, told them Royal Care workers would have to seek arbitration, after the DOL in January had said they would issue an order to comply.

“What about our wage theft cases at DOL, including cases for all of us unionized workers?” said Chen Guizhu, a home care worker who worked 24-hour shifts for the Chinese-American Planning Council since 2006. “When I submitted my logs of nighttime duty to the CPC and demanded the stolen wages, they threatened me to go to jail and then fired me.”

While protestors focused on Gov. Hochul for not taking action to help recover wages or end the 24-hour shifts, a spokesman for the governor said she had taken action to help home health aides.

Luke Fanous, a Gov. Hochul spokesman, said “our home care workers play an invaluable role in the lives of New Yorkers,” noting she increased the minimum home care aide wage, securing $13 billion in increases, since 2023. Hochul last month proposed legislation to ensure the minimum home care aide wage continues to rise based on inflation,

“Governor Hochul is committed to ensuring our workers receive any wages they are owed,” said Fanous.