NCLR and NHLA: Continued Delay of Fair Pay for Home Care Workers Is an Injustice

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact:
Joseph Rendeiro
(202) 776-1566
jrendeiro@nclr.org

Today, NCLR (National Council of La Raza) and the National Hispanic Leadership Agenda (NHLA) joined civil rights and women’s rights groups to file an amicus brief in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit supporting the U.S. Department of Labor’s (DOL) regulation to extend federal minimum wage and overtime protections to home care workers. When the rule was finalized in September 2013, NCLR and its allies declared it a long-overdue victory for two million home care workers, 21 percent of whom are Latino. In a case brought by the Home Care Association of America against DOL, Judge Richard Leon of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia blocked the home care rule, which was set to be implemented in January. The amicus brief filed today supports DOL’s appeal of Judge Leon’s decision.

“The Supreme Court has already decided that DOL was well within its authority to grant these much-needed protections to Latino home care workers. These are basic labor protections that home care workers have been excluded from for 40 years. To continue to stall implementation of these rules is not only unjust, it is blatantly disrespectful to those who we rely on to care for our loved ones,” said Eric Rodriguez, Vice President of the Office of Research, Advocacy and Legislation at NCLR. “Home care workers have waited long enough for fair pay. Further delay of these regulations is unacceptable.”

“We cannot allow the unjust exploitation of home care workers to continue,” added Hector E. Sanchez, Executive Director of the Labor Council for Latin American Advancement (LCLAA) and Chair of NHLA. “Attempts to further undercut and block pay equity for their hard work are fundamentally wrong and shameful. These caretakers, more than one in five of whom are Latinas, deserve to be treated with respect and rewarded fairly for their labor.”

NCLR and NHLA are confident that DOL has strong legal standing in its appeal. In the meantime, they will continue to work with states to build on the groundwork laid to implement these rules.

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