The US Department of Labor has obtained a consent judgment ordering a Willow Grove home care agency that intentionally denied 433 employees full overtime wages to pay them more than $3.8 million in back wages and liquidated damages. Obtained in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania after litigation by the department’s Office of the Solicitor in Philadelphia, the judgment requires TriMED HealthCare LLC and its owner, Beverly Jordan, to pay $1,930,761 in back wages, an equal amount in liquidated damages and a civil money penalty of $180,141 for the willful nature of its violations. The department originally filed its complaint on Sept. 2, 2020.
The litigation and judgment was prompted by an investigation by the department’s Wage and Hour Division that found TriMED HealthCare and Jordan paid direct care employees a regular rate ranging from $7.25 to $14 per hour. To avoid the expense of paying employees proper overtime, the employers lowered their regular rates when employees worked over 40 hours in a workweek, and paid overtime compensation based on those rates. By lowering the rates, the employer concealed the fact that they paid all hours as straight time in violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act. The division also determined the employers paid some administrative employees straight time when overtime pay was required, failed to pay direct care workers for travel time between client homes and did not keep records as required.
