Meet the New Chairman of the Senate Special Committee on Aging!

It is a real privilege to serve as Chairman of the Senate Special Committee on Aging.

I represent Florida, a state where more than 17% of the population is over the age of 65. I'm fully aware of the issues and challenges facing seniors. And, I look forward to working with Republicans and Democrats on this committee to protect Social Security and Medicare.

Sincerely,


Chairman Bill Nelson (FL)

Source:
United States Senate Special Committee on Aging

FL: Dad Squandered Daugher's $58K Inheritance

A new car, new TV and flight tickets for his girlfriend were apparently more important than his own daughter's future.

A man who splits his time between Nashville and Palm Beach County is accused of frittering away his daughter's $58,000 inheritance from her late mother — who died in 2011.

Willie Edward Lockridge, 41, allegedly went on a shopping spree that was kickstarted when he intercepted a check mailed to his brother — the girl's court-appointed plenary guardian.

According to a Palm Beach Sheriff's Office arrest report, Lockridge spent $28,088.14 on a 2007 Jaguar XK, $1,323 on a 54-inch plasma TV, and also spent the money on plane tickets for his girlfriend, shoes, jewelry and other items.

The girl's mother died on Oct. 30, 2011, and left her daughter $58,866.61, the proceeds from a 401(K) employee stock ownership program from Costco, where the mother worked.

Lockridge came under investigative scrutiny in August 2012. That's when a tip was received by fraud auditors working in the Division of Inspector General in the Palm Beach County Clerk and Comptroller's Office.

Lockridge was arrested Jan. 8 in Nashville and charged with larceny over $20,000 and fraud.

"This exemplifies how our Guardianship Fraud Program protects Palm Beach County's most vulnerable citizens," said Clerk and Comptroller Sharon Bock in a statement, noting it was the first arrest since the launch of the Gaurdianship Fraud Hotline in 2011.

Full Article and Source:
Dad Squandered Daughter's $58,000 Inheritance for Car, Flight for Girlfriend, Say Deputies

Lawyer Without Prior Discipline History Suspended Six Months

A Hubertus lawyer with no prior professional discipline record has been suspended from practice for six months for lack of action in civil cases for seven clients and for not keeping them informed.
Everett E. Wood was also ordered to pay nearly $20,000 for the costs of the proceedings against him, according to the Wisconsin Supreme Court's ruling.  

The Office of Lawyer Regulation issued a complaint alleging 28 counts of professional misconduct against Wood (Wisconsin, '92) in July 2011. The counts involved inaction and lack of client communication in civil cases involving seven clients, and one count of practicing law during a time his license was suspended for failing to meet continuing education requirements.

The court quoted the referee's finding:

These are matters where Mr. Wood simply failed to act diligently on client matters and then when confronted by his clients, failed to communicate. To compound the issue, when several of Mr. Wood's clients finally lost patience and brought the issue to the OLR for investigation, Mr. Wood often failed to cooperate with the OLR. Further, the misconduct doesn't involve just one case that slipped through the cracks——this misconduct spans a period of time and a series of cases. This is a pattern of misconduct that has caused Mr. Wood's clients unnecessary anxiety, stress and money.

Source:
Lawyer Withour Prior Discipline History Suspended Six Months

See Also:
Supreme Court of Wisconsin Ruling

Good News for New Jersey: Guardianships Get a Safety Net

New Jersey needs to protect vulnerable adults better from being defrauded by their guardians, officials said Wednesday in announcing a plan to have volunteers monitor the records of the tens of thousands of elderly and disabled residents who are under court oversight.

Chief Justice Stuart Rabner said the state's judiciary will be putting out a call for attorneys, accountants, retired professionals and others to volunteer for a new guardianship monitoring program that will debut in Passaic County and spread statewide.

"We want people who can read and analyze simple financial reports," Rabner said.

The volunteers will be asked to pore over the annual reports filed in cases in which a guardian — sometimes a relative or friend or sometimes an attorney or other professional — has been appointed to manage the finances, medical care and housing choices of an incapacitated adult.

Those reports are kept in county surrogate offices, some of which do not have the staff to ensure the reports are even filed on time, much less reviewed, Rabner said.

"We know that monitoring practices vary throughout the state," said the chief justice, pointing out that some counties have until recently been relying on paper files rather than computerized records.

The volunteer initiative was triggered by a concern among judges that the swelling number of guardianships — combined with shrunken budgets and staffs — has left many of these cases untended. Unchecked, the abuse can continue for years. In 2009, Ridgewood attorney Steven T. Rondos pleaded guilty to improperly withdrawing $1.5 million from the guardianship accounts of two dozen clients between 2001 to 2008.

As examples of the kind of abuses that can occur, Rabner cited a 2004 case in which an Ocean County attorney stole a combined $2.6 million from 56 incapacitated clients under his guardianship and the 2008 case in which a Toms River minister who served as a social worker took $200,000 from 19 people under his watch. The chief justice said those abuses were uncovered because Ocean County has an accountant review guardianship case files. The volunteers that the court plans to train will be given instruction on how to check the balances reported at the beginning and end of reporting periods, looking for signs that too much money is being spent on undocumented expenses.

Full Article and Source:
Guardianships Get a Safety Net

MN: Maple Grove Councilwoman Accused of Financial Exploitation, Perjury

Maple Grove city councilwoman LeAnn Sargent has been charged with perjury and financial exploitation of a vulnerable adult.

According to a search warrant filed in Hennepin County last October, LeAnn Sargent became the center of a family financial mess after her 85-year-old father, Robert Bobleter, died in March 2012. The warrant explains Sargent's siblings became suspicious when $346 was all that was left in their father's bank account.
Investigators learned Sargent had been granted power of attorney for her father in 2008. He lived with Sargent and her husband for the last two years of his life while he received hospice care.

Investigators say Sargent also used her power of attorney to maximize her inheritance as her father neared death, taking out a $58,000 mortgage on a cabin that she was to share with her brother under a 2010 amendment to the 2008 trust agreement which previously left the cabin solely to Bobleter's son.

Just days after that mortgage was funded, Bobleter transferred $38,836.37 to pay an outstanding balance on the mortgage loan for Bobleter's Maple Grove home, which was to be left as a special gift to Sargent.

Sargent and her husband, Scott, voluntarily filed Chapter 7 bankruptcy a year before her father died. They swore by affidavit their combined gross annual income for 2011 was $88,000, but made no mention Sargent was receiving money from her father, or expected anything from inheritance.

Full Article and Source:
Maple Grove Councilwoman Accused of Financial Exploitation, Perjury

$1 Million Lottery Winner Convicted of Stealing from Elderly Customers

The owner of a Chelmsford oil service company pleaded guilty for taking deposits from clients for work and repairs that were never performed, Middlesex District Attorney Gerry Leone announced this week. The Crier wrote an expose last February highlighting local elderly residents scammed by the heating company owner who apparently used his profession to bilk victims out of cash to cover up an alleged gambling problem.

According to District Attorney Gerry Leone, Michael Santaniello, 60, of Chelmsford, pleaded guilty in Lowell District Court to charges of larceny over $250 from a person over 60 years of age (4 counts), larceny over $250 (6 counts), larceny by check over $250, larceny over $250 by false pretenses, and failure to return leased personalty (personal, movable property).

Lowell District Court Judge Lynn Rooney sentenced the defendant to 2 ½ years in the House of Correction with 18 months to serve and the balance suspended for 2 years. Following that sentence, the defendant was ordered to serve another 2 ½ year House of Correction sentence to be suspended for 5 years. During that period when the sentence is suspended, the defendant will be on probation conditions that he not engage in any employment or volunteer work with the elderly or disabled, not operate or manage his own business, complete a money management course, attend Gambler’s Anonymous, and pay restitution.

“This defendant targeted seniors, many of whom had been his customers for years, and took advantage of them by taking deposits for work he never intended to perform and materials he never provided,” District Attorney Leone said.

In 2009, the defendant won a $1 million prize in the Massachusetts State Lottery, according to officials. Between August 2009 and June 2011, the defendant won an additional $23,000 from the Mass State Lottery.

Full Article and Source:
$1 Million Lottery Winner Convicted of Stealing from Elderly Customers

KILL MOM, KILL DAD - Disposing of the Elderly for Profit. Chapter Three!

Joe Roubicek is presently the economic crimes investigator for the State Attorney’s Office 17th Judicial Circuit of Florida, and author of  the book:  Financial Abuse of the Elderly:  A Detectives Case File of Exploitation Crimes

READ CHAPTER THREE  of Joe Roubicek's new book in progress:"KILL MOM, KILL DAD: Disposing of the Elderly for Profit"

See Also:
The OPPAGA Report and Elder Abuse

Financial Abuse:  Fraud vs Exploitation of the Elderly

Why Exploitation Crimes are Misunderstood by the Government

Snowbird Scams

Financial Abuse of the Elderly website

Judges Debate New York's Approach to Attorney Discipline

Judges at a panel on Tuesday defended New York state's department-by-department approach to discipline of attorneys, saying they receive fair hearings regardless of the venue.
New York leaves attorney discipline up to each of the four intermediate appellate departments, unlike many states that have a unified system.

During a discussion at the New York State Bar Association's annual meeting, Luis Gonzalez, presiding justice of the Appellate Division, First Department, said that while uniformity was a "laudable objective," justice could still be served using disparate disciplinary rules.
Some differences in the department's disciplinary rules are minor or procedural, panelists said. In the First Department, for instance, referees designated to investigate certain cases are allowed to make recommendations to the judges about the type of sanction to impose. In the Second Department they generally cannot.

Other differences are more significant.

Only two appellate divisions -- the Third and Fourth -- allow oral arguments in disciplinary cases. And all the appellate departments except the First have a diversion program for attorneys whose minor disciplinary infractions stem from alcohol or drug abuse.

Some New York attorneys have questioned whether the state bar would benefit from a less balkanized system. In a 2005 report, the New York County Lawyers Association's Committee on Lawyer Discipline suggested the disciplinary rules should be more unified.

Full Article and Source:
Judges Debate New York's Approach to Attorney Discipline

IA Group Home Caregiver Pleads Guilty to Financial Exploitation

A former caregiver at a Skyline Center group home pleaded guilty to financially exploiting two residents.
Anitra D. Enriquez pleaded guilty to two counts of dependant adult abuse, financial exploitation and received fines of $100 and $65.

According to court documents, Enriquez served as a Skyline caregiver at a group home at 272 36th Ave.

Samantha Kress, a Skyline employee, reported strange withdraws on the bank accounts of two dependent adults living at the group home at 272 36th Ave. North, according to the affidavit.

According to court documents, caregivers have access to residents’ accounts for dependent adult care.

Full Article and Source:
Woman Pleads Guilty to Financial Exploitation

Tonite on T. S. Radio: Meet Your Hospitalist

This is the replacement show for the January 27th technical problems. Beverly Newman, Elder Advocate, Florida, will be co-hosting this show. This evening we will be discussing one of the newest booming medical industries; the Hospitalist and why you should avoid them at all costs in most cases. Beverly will be discussing the Sarasota, Florida, sheriff department efforts to have people admitted to hospitals sign total waivers on their constitutional rights and their right to medical privacy. All of this just in time for the one-sided crackdown on prescription drug users. Of course no real effort will be expended to go after the manufacturers and distributors. And there certainly will not be any action taken against Doctors who prescribe chemical restraints for the elderly using drugs prohibited for use on the elderly. This would be particularly handy in the case of elder abduction at the hands of professional predators. Not knowing what they were signing, they could actually be facilitating their own waiver of rights in every area....and would be declared incompetent immediately afterwards. The law enforcement coding/billing system and the answer to why law enforcement will not report or respond to reports of abuse, kidnap and neglect of elderly individuals committed by professional predators.

LISTEN NOW or listen to the archive later

TN: Conservator Pleads Guilty to Sexual Battery, Theft

With his two victims looking on, a 76-year-old former court appointed conservator pleaded guilty Monday to theft and sexual battery charges, crimes he committed against the very people he was charged with protecting.

Speaking so softly he could barely be heard, Walter Strong of Celina entered the guilty pleas under an agreement where charges of rape by an authority figure were dropped. From 2004 until 2011, Strong was the conservator of a handicapped couple. He admitted to sexual battery on the woman and theft of $105,479 from both of them.

He will face 270 days of jail time under the plea deal, time that could drop to 200 days for good behavior.
Although Strong was also ordered to make restitution to the couple, his attorney, Jack Lowery of Lebanon, told Circuit Judge Judge David A. Patterson it was unlikely his client would ever be able to pay back the full amount.

“He doesn’t have $105,000,” Lowery said.

When the judge asked him directly if he would agree to make restitution, Strong said, “I don’t know how.”

Patterson warned Strong that, if he failed to make an effort at restitution, the full 10-year sentence called for under state law could be imposed.

Full Article and Source:
Conservator Pleads Guilty to Sexual Battery, Theft

See Also:
TN Conservator Charged With Raping Woman, Stealing From Couple

Fiduciary Watch: Public Admonishment of Judge Charles R. Brehmer

The Commission on Judicial Performance has publicly admonished Judge Charles R. Brehmer of the Kern County Superior Court.

The commission determined that Judge Brehmer should be publicly admonished for misconduct relating to the judge’s 2008 campaign for judicial office. Judge Brehmer violated the Political Reform Act (Act) by receiving cash contributions in excess of $100, failing to disclose the true source of a $15,000 loan to the campaign, failing to disclose $9,000 in contributions on a pre-election campaign statement, failing to timely file three semi-annual campaign statements, and failing to deposit the $15,000 campaign loan from his campaign treasurer into the campaign committee’s bank account and instead depositing it into his personal bank account.

The judge admitted three of the violations in a stipulation with the Fair Political Practices Commission (FPPC) wherein the judge also agreed to pay a $5,500 fine. The additional violations, not addressed in the FPPC stipulation, were found by the commission. The FPPC determined, and the commission concurs, that there was no evidence of any intent to conceal information from the public on the part of Judge Brehmer.

Full Article and Sourc:
Public Admonishment of Judge Charles R. Brehmer

IN Judge Peter Nemeth Sanctioned Before Retirement

The state Supreme Court has privately reprimanded a former northern Indiana probate judge.

The South Bend Tribune reports that Peter Nemeth agreed to the sanction last month, before he retired as St. Joseph County probate judge. Nemeth had served as a probate judge since 1993.

The Judicial Qualifications Commission filed a misconduct charge against Nemeth in August claiming he violated the code of judicial conduct during a 2011 guardianship hearing by suggesting it was inappropriate for taxpayers to pay for a sign language interpreter for a woman seeking custody of a deaf teenager when she "hadn't paid taxes for several years."

Nemeth has said he doesn't believe he did anything wrong.

Full Article and Source:
N. Ind. Judge Sanctioned Before Retirement

See Also:
Now Retired Judge Sanctioned During Last Weeks on Bench

Data Gaps Hamper Elderly-Abuse Review in VT

Vermont has made big progress in clearing up a backlog of investigations into reports of abuse, neglect and financial exploitation of the elderly and other vulnerable adults, according to both critics and defenders of the state’s Adult Protective Services system.

But there’s concern among some lawmakers and advocates that the division of the Department of Disabilities, Aging and Independent Living may be clearing the backlog, in part, by being too selective in taking new cases.

And the department’s commissioner acknowledged in an interview and in testimony to the House Human Services Committee that there are big gaps in the data used by lawmakers trying to measure the division’s performance.

The House Human Services Committee heard testimony Thursday that APS failed to intervene in a Bennington County case of an 89-year-old woman whose daughter was threatening to kill her.

Sandy Conrad, executive director of the Southwestern Vermont Area Agency on Aging, said repeated calls from her office to APS beginning at 1:13 p.m. on a Friday in November drew no response until the following Monday. After a cursory review, APS sent a letter to Conrad’s agency saying, “The available evidence indicated that abuse, neglect or exploitation did not occur,” she told the committee.

Despite appeals to more senior APS staff, there’s been “nothing to date that changes this decision,” Conrad said. “And that perpetrator still lives in that household and is still a threat to that situation.”

Full Article and Source:
Data Gaps Hamper Elderly-Abuse Review in VT

GA Woman Convicted of Elder Abuse

Former Cedar Grove Middle School secretary Bobbie Neil Ward is facing decades in prison after a DeKalb jury found her guilty of 21 of 25 counts of wide-ranging crimes against disabled and elderly victims on Jan. 16.

Sentencing is scheduled for Feb. 25.

Ward was on trial on a 25-count indictment of abuse and exploitation of disabled adults, identity fraud, forgery, false imprisonment, and neglect and exploitation of an elderly person.

A grand jury said she committed the crimes between August 2006 and November 2011 when she claimed to own a home health care service but instead fraudulently used bank accounts, pensions and Social Security numbers of her clients.

During her trial, which began on Jan. 7, DeKalb Superior Court Judge Tangela Barrie severed two of the counts – one count for aggravated assault and one count for disabled adult abuse – from the indictment.

Ward will face those charges at a later date.

DeKalb District Attorney Robert James applauded the guilty verdict and said justice was served.

Full Article and Source;
Woman Convicted of Elder Abuse

Dear Abby:

DEAR ABBY - My husband's younger sister, "Cindy," is mentally ill. She has caused tremendous problems in the family. She has been arrested too many times to remember and is now on five years' probation for injury to a child. My in-laws continue making excuses for her and are the worst enablers I have ever known.

My husband once urged his dad to put Cindy into a group home or program that will take care of her because his parents are getting up in years. They refuse because it would mean they'd have to have Cindy officially committed, and they think there is still some magic doctor out there who will fix her.

Can my husband do anything as a last effort before something happens to one of his parents, or she winds up in jail?
~SAD IN TEXAS

DEAR SAD - Your husband should try to convince his parents to get some family counseling. It might help them accept that their daughter needs more help than they are equipped to give her. An outside, objective person should weigh in so that Cindy can get the professional help she so obviously needs.

If she is physically, psychologically or emotionally abusing her parents, Adult Protective Services can step in to be sure they are protected. When your in-laws pass away, if your sister-in-law becomes a danger to herself or those around her, a family member can request a commitment and psychological evaluation.

Source:
Dear Abby

Wife Accused of Fraudulently Collecting $100K + In Personal Care Attendent Salary

A Chisago County resident was prominently featured in stories by metro news outlets last year, describing her legal ordeal contesting end-of-life measures for her 85-year-old husband. In recent months, though, the story has expanded from a tale of human emotion to include alleged Medicaid fraud. Franconia Township resident Lana Barnes, is facing seven criminal charges of theft by false representation. She is accused of taking more than $100,000 from the system designed to compensate attendants who provide care for the seriously ill in their home. Barnes, (who turns 58 on Jan. 17) rather unceremoniously lost her guardianship rights in early 2011 concerning her frail husband Al.

The probate court reacted to Barnes having altered Al’s medical care directive papers, omitting two pages of the 1993 directive when she presented the papers to a hospital in December 2010. The statements omitted were contradicting her assertions that he’d stipulated aggressive, life sustaining care. The theft charges came March 2012 as a result of Chisago County Public Health and Human Services staff and state officials in the Medicaid Fraud Control Unit of the MN Attorney General looking into paychecks for Al Barnes’ personal care attendant (PCA). According to the criminal complaint Lana Barnes intentionally mis-represented to Nurse Staffing Solutions that her son Fred had provided personal nursing services for Al. Spouses are not permitted under Medicaid to collect wages as a PCA.

Other family members may, however, qualify as a PCA. The problem was that the son Fred, an over-the-road truck driver, was not at home on Quinlan Avenue but was driving when his PCA timesheets claimed hours from Nurse Staffing Solutions. PCA providers like Nurse Staffing Solutions, administer the attendants’ participation in the program and distribute wages to approved PCAs. The complaint also alleges that Chisago County social workers were concerned that some of the PCA hours submitted overlapped with when Al was hospitalized. Medicaid does not cover costs for a PCA when the client is hospitalized. The complaint alleges Barnes’ timecards covering about $22,000 in pay, between July 2009 and May 2010, coincided with Al’s hospital stays.

The complaint declares that when the state investigator contacted Fred he said he had been accepted as his father’s PCA in 2005. By 2006 he was driving truck, and his mother managed all the paperwork relating to his father’s care. Fred denies completing, signing or submitting any PCA time cards. He reportedly told the fraud unit investigator he knew Lana Barnes was receiving his PCA paychecks and he should not have let this continue, the complaint states. “Overpayments” based on Fred’s trucking logs and company payroll records between Jan. 2007 to May 31, 2010 amounted to $100,973. Due to the complexities of this case and the amount of the alleged fraud, Chisago County Attorney Janet Reiter said prosecution is being handled by the state, in court proceedings in Center City.

Full Article and Source:
Franconia Resident Accused of Fraudulently Collecting $100,000 Plus in Personal Care Attendent Salary

See Also:
Shocking Surprise in Al Barnes Case!

Editorial: Protect Against Nebraska Guardianship Abuses

In 2010, a World-Herald investigation found that more than 12,400 incapacitated Nebraskans rely on a guardian to oversee their health, a conservator to handle their financial matters or a guardian-conservator to handle both.

In some instances, The World-Herald reporting uncovered troubling abuses. Especially outrageous was the case of Dinah Turrentine-Sims, a court-appointed guardian-conservator who stole more than $400,000 from eight of her wards in Douglas County.

In response, a state task force proposed sensible changes. Key tools included requiring background checks, bond insurance for estates over $10,000 and quicker cataloging of assets. In 2011 the Legislature included those as part of a practical reform package, and the Nebraska judges and court personnel have worked hard to implement the needed safeguards.

In his annual State of the Judiciary address to the Legislature last week, Nebraska Supreme Court Chief Justice Michael Heavican said the increased monitoring under the reforms “has uncovered further instances of theft and misuse of funds by guardians and conservators.”

In addition, he said, the Supreme Court is creating a permanent Commission on Guardianships and Conservatorships to provide an ongoing vehicle for maintaining the focus on this important issue.
A cautionary note is needed on one of the chief justice’s points, however. He said the new requirements involving guardianship forms and procedures have increased the workload of court staffers, and the Supreme Court is working with the Nebraska State Bar Association to see how the process can be simplified.

No one doubts the hard work by Nebraska’s courts, and if practical ways can be found to help court staff without lessening the safeguards to protect incapacitated Nebraskans, fine. But there needs to be no doubt on what the priority should be: maintaining the full strength of the protections for these vulnerable citizens, as set forth in the 2011 reform legislation.

Source:
World-Herald Editorial:  Protect Against Nebraska Guardianship Abuses

See Also:
Nebraska: Chief Justice:  Guardianship Initiates Show Success

Tonight on T.S. Radio: Meet Your Hospitalist!

This evening we will be discussing one of the newest booming medical industries; the Hospitalist and why you should avoid them at all costs in most cases.

Beverly will be discussing the Sarasota, Florida, sheriff department efforts to have people admitted to hospitals sign total waivers on their constitutional rights and their right to medical privacy. All of this just in time for the one-sided crackdown on prescription drug users. Of course no real effort will be expended to go after the manufacturers and distributors. And there certainly will not be any action taken against Doctors who prescribe chemical restraints for the elderly using drugs prohibited for use on the elderly.

This would be particularly handy in the case of elder abduction at the hands of professional predators. Not knowing what they were signing, they could actually be facilitating their own waiver of rights in every area….and would be declared incompetent immediately afterwards.

The law enforcement coding/billing system and the answer to why law enforcement will not report or respond to reports of abuse, kidnap and neglect of elderly individuals by family members.
Lots to talk about! We will be taking calls if you have something to add!  917-388-4520

5:00pm PST … 6:00pm MST … 7:00pm CST … 8:00pm EST

LISTEN live or listen to the archive later

Guardian Charged After Disabled 19-Year-Old Allegedly Sold for Sex

A Woodbury woman has been charged with neglecting a vulnerable adult after she allegedly dropped off a profoundly disabled 19-year-old woman -- who was in the suspect's care -- at locations where she was forced to have sex with numerous men last summer, court documents say.

Cheryl Ann Tchida, 50, is charged with a gross misdemeanor, and on Friday police said more arrests are possible.

The Ramsey County criminal complaint says Tchida was sole guardian and caretaker of the 19-year-old, whose identity isn't being published because she's an alleged sex assault victim. She has the IQ of a 5- or 6-year-old and cannot tell time or manage most of her daily activities.

Tchida dropped off the victim at a Roseville motel and later at an apartment in the 300 block of Dale Street on repeated occasions for nearly six weeks, though the younger woman kept telling her guardian that she was being forced to have sex with men she didn't know. She was impregnated last summer but doesn't know by whom, court papers say.

The case is raising concerns as well about the victim's guardianship.
Washington County had allowed Tchida to become guardian of the victim after she turned 18, even though Tchida was earlier convicted of neglecting a baby who was abused in her unlicensed day-care center.
The 19-year-old victim is now in a group home.

Full Article and Source:
Guardian Charged After Disabled Woodbury Teen Allegedly Sold For Sex

Workers, Not Babysitters

Some very welcome news may break soon for the domestic workforce: the White House appears to be close to announcing a rule change to the Federal Labor Standards Act, finally including home health aides—those who bathe, nurse, toilet, and care for the elderly and disabled in their homes—in its protections. It may sound out of another century, and it is, but home health care workers had been excluded from federal overtime and minimum wage protections through a companionship exemption. It was designed to leave out only those who provided company, but had become so widely interpreted as to encompass a vital, booming workforce. The administration has long been sitting on the decision to change the rule, but outgoing Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis recently told The Nation, “there’ll be movement on that. We’ll shortly see progress made there.”

If and when this change is announced, this workforce will be formally recognized as “workers,” not babysitters making pin money.

Full Article and Source:
Workers, Not Babysitters