By Joe Maniscalco

Advocates for New York City home care attendants forced to work punishing 24-hour shifts widely condemned as “modern day slavery” or at the very least “unfair”—say they have emails suggesting an unholy alliance between one of the most influential Asian American social services organization in the nation and the New York State Department of Labor [NYSDOL] to kill a major probe exposing wholesale wage theft in the industry—and they want Attorney General Letitia James to investigate.

Up until 2023, the NYSDOL had been conducting an extensive multi-year investigation into wage theft claims by the older immigrant women of color who do most the home care work in NYC. But then it abruptly began pulling the plug last April, vaguely telling them the probe was being shut down because the NYSDOL could not actually look into claims by workers whose union contracts require disputes to be settled by arbitration.

1199 SEIU—the union representing many of the home care workers in question—began including mandatory arbitration for wage and hour disputes in its collective bargaining agreements beginning way back in 2015.

"There is a pattern of selective enforcement of New York’s labor laws based on politics and favoritism,” Assembly Member Kim [D-40th District], told Work-Bites this week. “It’s up to all of us to stand up and end this racist and sexist attack on poor immigrant home care workers. I am calling on New York’s Department of Labor to continue their investigation into hundreds of cases of wage theft against the Chinese-American Planning Council [CPC].”

The CPC bills itself as the largest Asian-American social services agency in the United States today, and is the third-biggest employer of home care workers in New York State.

The NYSDOL’s rationale for spiking its multi-year wage theft probe never sat right with Assembly Member Kim, who called the action a “political decision” back in September, and immediately suspected the move was the result of pressure from inside Governor Kathy Holchul’s administration to try and protect nonprofit employers—including the CPC—from having to cough up more money in unpaid wages.

A $30 million “Special Wage Fund” covering wage theft claims for active and former home care workers was created in 2022 after unions, led by 1199 SEIU, consolidated wage theft claims against 42 different home care agencies—including the CPC—into a single arbitration case.

CPC President and CEO Wayne Ho says his organization has “paid millions of dollars” into that fund, and that “any back wages is through the settlement agreement.”

About one hundred New York City home care workers, many who insist they ended up with “crumbs” as a result of the settlement, boarded two buses from the Lower East Side earlier this week to begin the 150-mile trek up to Albany where attorneys representing them argued an Article 78 case challenging the NYSDOL’s decision to drop its wage theft probe last year.

“I went to the NYSDOL with several other CPC workers to file wage theft claims against CPC,” Zhu Qin Chen, a home care worker who’s spent 15 years working round-the-clock shifts, four days a week, said in a statement. “Ms. Hong’s team at the DOL asked me very detailed questions about my work. It’s been six years, why can’t the government give us justice? CPC is still doing 24-hours workdays because the DOL is colluding with CPC to continue to persecute our home attendant sisters.”

According to home care worker advocates, former CPC Council Board Chair Jenny Low “exerted undue influence on the NYSDOL’s decisions” while serving as Governor Hochul’s Chief of Constituency Affairs—and that influence ultimately led to the “cessation of investigations into workers’ cases without charges.”

The governor hired Low to work in the Executive Chamber in November 2022. She continued in that role until January of this year. Low had also perviously served as a special advisor to New York City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams [D-28th District]—the chief person responsible for squashing City Council legislation aimed at abolishing 24-hour shifts for home care workers. 

Some home care workers and their advocates started a change.org petition last summer, flagging Low’s alleged abuse of power and calling on Governor Hochul to meet with them.

“We have fought alongside workers for nearly a decade to end the violent 24-hour workday,” the Ain’t I a Woman?! Campaign said in a statement this week. “And today, we see why it has persisted for so long: because corrupt, law-breaking agencies like CPC operate above the law, and even when workers attempt to bring it into compliance with state laws, CPC uses its political clout and influence to ensure it continues to receive state money and break the law with impunity,” 

When asked about allegations the CPC “exerted undue influence on NYSDOL decisions” while Low worked in the Executive Chamber—a spokesperson for the organization told Work-Bites, “the [Chinese-American Planning Council Home Attendant Program Inc.] remains fully committed to adhering to all New York State Medicaid regulations, DOL standards, labor laws, court decisions, and union agreements.”

“The [NYSDOL] informed us that they adhered to its policy of not investigating claims for wages or benefits that fall under a union's grievance and arbitration procedures,” the CPC spokesperson said in an email. “[NYSDOL] will only investigate claims in cases where the individual is not represented by a union.”

Home care worker advocates say the emails they’ve obtained so far, indicating the CPC’s undue influence over NYSDOL decisions is “just the tip of the iceberg” and that they are considering releasing them to the public.

Last month, FBI agents raided the Long Island home of Linda Sun, a former NYSDOL employee fired in 2023 for “misconduct,” and who had previously also served as Governor Hochul’s deputy chief of staff.

According to home care worker advocates, Sun and her fellow Hochul staffers at the time, determined that NYSDOL investigations into CPC labor violation claims remained open as late as July 2022.

Assembly Member Kim published a scathing report prior to that in January, alleging the CPC’s 24-hour workday and labor violations, which Ho’s organization immediately blasted as containing “lies, untruths, and distortions.”

Work-Bites asked a NYSDOL spokesperson if there are any cases involving wage theft claims by CPC home care workers that remain open—but he declined to address the question, saying only that the agency does not comment on pending litigation.

Low could not be reached for comment.

When asked about the status of home care workers’ request for an investigation into why the NYSDOL scrapped its probe last year, Attorney General James’ office also declined to comment—instead calling wage theft a “heartless crime that denies too many people the fair pay that they rightfully earned” and saying only that “every worker deserves to be paid and treated fairly.”

U.S. Department of Labor attorneys arguing a separate case last year, however, held that “Employers cannot use workers as insurance policies to unconditionally guarantee future profit streams. Nor can employers use arbitration agreements to shield unlawful practices.”

In addition to helping to spike the NYSDOL’s probe, home care advocates contend the CPC has also been allowed to benefit from hundreds of millions of dollars in state monies despite documented labor law violations—contrary to NY Public Health Law Section 3614-C(5).

“In 2015, a DOL audit identified that we were incorrectly calculating overtime based on minimum wage instead of the weekend differential,” a CPC spokesperson told Work-Bites in an email. “While CPCHAP consistently paid overtime to home care workers, it should have been paid based on the weekend differential for those working weekend shifts. We promptly addressed this issue and made necessary adjustments to ensure our workers receive the appropriate compensation.”

Georgina Abreu, a home care worker at  First Chinese Presbyterian Community Affairs, said that she is angry the NYSDOL is working with the CPC to “shut all of our cases.”

“I worked 20 years at FCP. Always 24-hour shifts. Always paid only half of what I should have gotten,” she said in a statement released after this week’s Albany rally. “I’m angry that the DOL is working with CPC to shut all of our cases. I’m angry that the DOL allows CPC to keep getting money from the government even when the DOL’s investigation confirmed that CPC breaks the law. This is corruption! We must get our owed wages and end the 24-hour shift!”

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