1199SEIU Tells Home Attendants Industry Will Collapse If They’re Paid Owed Wages

On April 9th, 2019, representatives of 1199SEIU met with 10 home care workers employed by Chinese-American Planning Council (CPC) regarding the workers’ complaints of wage theft and not being able to sleep at night during 24-hour shifts. The1199SEIU lawyer told workers that in the union arbitration, they won’t be paid the full amount of wages CPC owes them because if all 1199SEIU workers were to be paid all the wages they are owed, an estimated $6 billion, it would wipe out the home care industry.

At 12:38, the 1199SEIU lawyer says, “We estimate that if everybody got paid what they were owed from missing meal breaks and rest breaks we would be talking somewhere between 5 and 6 billion dollars. There isn’t enough money in the industry to pay back every dollar of what everyone is owed for missing meal breaks and rest breaks. And if the employers were pushed to pay back every penny, they would all go out of business.”