Governor Cuomo: Order All Home Care Agencies and Insurance Companies to Protect Home Care Workers and their Patients

Home care workers are frontline health care workers who take care of our most vulnerable New Yorkers. However, even to this day, they are not given protections that they need to do their work safely, and their calls on their agencies and Governor Cuomo for protections have gone ignored.

This must stop. To protect the health of home care workers and the patients they care for, Governor Cuomo must take responsibility to order all home care agencies and the insurance companies to right their wrong. Sign on to support the home care workers' demands:

1. Provide sufficient protective gear such as masks, gloves, gowns, hand sanitizers, disinfectant sprays, hand soap;

2. Arrange car service paid by the agencies for home attendants to travel to and from work, until the government improves the subway service and other public transportation;

3. Recognize home attendants as health care workers, and offer in-home testing for home attendants and their patients;

4. Protect the health of the home attendants and patients by requiring patients’ families to comply with Matilda's law; if there is non-compliance, home attendants who quit with a health concern should receive Unemployment Insurance; and

5. Stop 24-hour workdays immediately; if the home attendants agree to stay for 24-hour shifts due to safety concerns over the pandemic, the home attendants should be paid 24 hours of wages, including overtime wages