PCA Healthcare Workers Return to DSS Demanding Owed Wages
- What
- PCA's will gather outside the building and demonstrate the conditions they are being forced to endure while remaining unpaid due to the state’s failure to ensure that all unpaid caregivers are made whole.
- Who
- Homecare Providers from across Connecticut
- Where
- DSS Headquarters, 55 Farmington Ave., Hartford
- When
- Friday, January 9, 2025 10:00AM
HARTFORD, Conn. – Frustration has reached a breaking point as Personal Care Attendants (PCAs) across Connecticut remain unpaid for hours worked in October, November, and December, despite repeated assurances from the Department of Social Services (DSS) that the issue would be resolved.
As of today, over 800 PCAs are still missing pay, with some workers owed 40 to more than 100 hours. These are not accounting errors these are missed paychecks that have pushed workers and their families into crisis. PCAs report falling behind on rent, receiving shutoff notices, facing eviction, living out of their cars, or being forced to move in with relatives during the coldest months of the year.
“I need to pay my rent, or my consumer, who is also my mother, and I will lose our home.”
Amarilis Cruz, PCA, New Haven
This is zero fault of any of these workers, many who are living paycheck to paycheck, instead they are the victims of the system and a state that has failed them. Failed to value them, failed to pay them and has now failed to make them whole for the life-sustaining work they provide.
This is not the first time DSS and GT Independence have been warned about payroll failures. Contract requirements require proactive notification when workers are not authorized to work, and those requirements have not been met. DSS has also failed to enforce fiscal penalties written into GT Independence’s contract, allowing the same problems to repeat.
Several members will be on scene that can speak with the media. To arrange an interview please contact the Communications Office at 860-28-6443 or comms@seiu1199ne.org
District 1199 SEIU New England represents 29,000 health care and service workers in Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Southeastern Massachusetts. In Rhode Island, 1199 SEIU NE represents almost 5,000 members. 1199 SEIU NE is affiliated with the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) – a union of over 2 million members across the United States, Puerto Rico and Canada. SEIU has been a national leader in pushing the growing Fight for $15 and a Union movement.