A federal court in Pennsylvania has ordered a Philadelphia home healthcare staffing agency to pay $197,236 in back wages and liquidated damages to 31 employees after federal investigators found that their employer failed to pay proper overtime. On July 10, the US District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia entered a consent judgment requiring Empire Homecare Agency LLC to pay back wages, damages and penalties resulting from litigation prompted by a US Department of Labor investigation. The department’s Wage and Hour Division determined the staffing agency failed to pay an overtime premium to employees for hours over 40 in a workweek while living in their clients’ homes. Investigators also learned of eight instances when Empire Homecare did not pay overtime to three employees who did not live with their clients. They also learned the employer failed to combine the hours that an employee spent caring for two clients when calculating overtime. These actions violated the Fair Labor Standards Act. The judgment also requires the payment of $15,010 in civil money penalties for the intentional nature of the employers’ violations, and forbids the employer from future FLSA violations.
