LANSING, MI - On September 25, 2024, Governor Gretchen Whitmer released the following statement after the Michigan House/Senate passed Senate Bills 790 and 791, which will support workforce development, expand training, and restore bargaining rights for home health care workers after they were taken away in 2012.  

“Home health care workers do important, challenging work every day to take care of our loved ones, and we must do more to have their backs.

“Thanks to my partners in the Michigan Legislature, we will finally restore the right of more than 30,000 independent provider home health care workers to collectively bargain for better pay and benefits and start to build out the caregiving infrastructure we need to help Michigan families and care for our neighbors who need day-to-day support.

“As demand for home health care workers rises, we need to make sure that the jobs we create in this space are good-paying, family-sustaining jobs. We must ensure Michiganders doing the hard, often overlooked work of caring for our seniors and people with disabilities have more money in their pockets so they can take care of their own families, too.

“I am grateful for the passage of these bills and look forward to reviewing and signing them soon.”