US District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania in Pittsburgh has issued a consent order requiring the payment of more than $1.6 million in back wages and damages to 546 home health aides. The Pittsburgh home healthcare agency misclassified the aides as independent contractors and failed to pay required overtime wages in violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act. The court also ordered payment of $20,000 in civil money penalties. The court’s action follows an investigation of Christian Home Healthcare Corp., operating as Christian Home Healthcare in Pittsburgh, by the US Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division. The court ordered Christian Home Healthcare Corp. and its owner, India Christian, to pay $812,675 in back wages and an equal amount in liquidated damages to the affected home health aides. Due to the willful nature of the violations, the court also ordered the company to pay civil money penalties.
Investigators determined that Christian Home Health Care violated the FLSA when the employer:
- Misclassified 546 home health aides as independent contractors instead of employees, and then failed to pay them overtime when they worked over 40 hours per week.
- Continued to pay some aides straight-time rates for overtime hours, even after it began to classify them correctly as employees.
- Failed to keep a record of the number of hours worked by office staff.
View the complaint and consent judgment.
