The Department of Labor has obtained a consent judgment in federal court that orders a Delaware County home care agency to pay more than $1 million in back wages, liquidated damages and penalties after the department found the employer shortchanged 159 workers of their earned wages. The action in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia follows an investigation of Caring Hearts Health Care Services LLC by the department’s Wage and Hour Division. Division investigators determined the Collingdale employer did not pay its employees overtime wages for hours over 40 in a workweek, instead paying them the same rate for all hours worked. In addition, the employer failed to accurately record employees’ hours worked. These violations were willful, as shown by an employee handbook stating that non-exempt employees “are entitled to overtime pay as required by applicable federal and state law.” The judgment requires Caring Hearts Health Care Services to pay 159 employees $478,294 in back wages and an equal amount in liquidated damages, bars the employer from future Fair Labor Standards Act violations and affirms $97,459 in civil penalties the department assessed for the willful nature of the employer’s violations.
