After an investigation and litigation by the US Department of Labor, a federal court entered a consent judgment requiring a Waterford-based homecare service business, CareCo Shoreline Inc. — doing business as CareCo — and its owner Helga Pfanner, to pay a total of $92,150 in back wages and liquidated damages to 107 in-home caregivers. The back wages and liquidated damages, which cover the period from March 24, 2018, to Aug. 10, 2019, have been paid, and the department’s Wage and Hour Division is distributing them to the affected employees. Due to the violations’ willful and repeated nature, CareCo and Pfanner have also paid $80,000 in civil money penalties to the department. Read the consent judgment and order. The consent judgment came in the wake of the department prevailing on its motion for partial summary judgment, in which the court granted summary judgment on CareCo’s overtime violations based on its own records, CareCo’s liability for liquidated damages and the willfulness of those overtime violations. Read the partial summary judgment order.
