We have long-led the battle for protecting the rights for employees in the health care industry. We have successfully litigated overtime and wage cases for residential care workers, medical technicians and nurses. One of the premier law firms that just represents employers in wage cases, Littler Mendelson, P.C., has issued a lengthy report called “Hot Wage and Hour Issues for Home Healthcare Employers,” which highlights the growing attention given to overtime case in the home health care industry. The introduction to the report states:
Class and collective actions against healthcare employers under the Fair Labor standards Act (FLSA), the federal wage and hour law, have increased dramatically in recent years, and providers of home healthcare services have not been immune. Plaintiffs’ attorneys recently filed class action lawsuits against two of the nation’s largest home healthcare providers alleging that clinicians, including registered nurses, physical therapists, and occupational therapists, were improperly classified as exempt employees and incorrectly compensated under the FLsA and state law.1 other class actions have been filed in various states, accusing home healthcare providers of FLSA violations such as failing to pay for overtime, work during meal periods, off-the-clock work, and travel time.
The U.S. Department of Labor (DoL) has also specifically targeted the home healthcare industry in its “We Can Help” campaign, designed to educate workers about their rights and how to file a complaint with the DoL for wages allegedly owed. in its press release announcing the campaign, the DoL stated that it is placing “a special focus on reaching employees” in home healthcare and other traditionally lower-wage industries. In addition, the DoL has disseminated a number of fact sheets specifically addressed to healthcare workers, which has led inevitably to more investigations and lawsuits.
In addition to its educational outreach efforts, the DoL has increased its enforcement activities in the home healthcare industry. For example, following an investigation of a provider of home healthcare aides, the DoL filed a lawsuit in federal court alleging that the provider’s practice of paying the aides flat daily rates violated the FLSA because it failed to provide them minimum wages and overtime. The court recently ordered the provider to pay back wages and liquidated damages to the home healthcare aides. Similar enforcement actions by the DoL have targeted the alleged failure to pay in-home caregivers for travel time between work sites, incorrect calculations of the overtime rate, child labor violations, and misclassification of employees as independent contractors.
Lebau & Neuworth attorneys will continue to lead the charge on protecting the rights for all workers.
