On Feb. 2, 2024, Judge Sean F. Cox in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan entered a consent judgment requiring Reliance Staffing LLC and its owner, Fahim Uddin, to pay a total of $181,531 — representing $90,765 in overtime wages and an equal amount in liquidated damages — to 70 registered nurses, licensed practical nurses, and certified nursing assistants. An investigation by the US Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division found that Uddin and Reliance Staffing misclassified their workers as independent contractors when, in fact, they were employees. By doing so, the employer failed to pay overtime wages at time and one-half their hourly rate of pay for hours over 40 in a pay period. On Sept. 22, 2023, the department filed a complaint in federal court against Reliance Staffing and Uddin, seeking back wages and damages for the employees for violating the overtime provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act. Under terms of the consent judgment, Uddin and Reliance Staffing will make the back wages payments in installments through Aug. 1, 2024, and must also provide employees with Wage and Hour Division fact sheets and verify that the division’s workers’ rights posters are posted and visible at each of their locations.
