The US Department of Labor, Wage and Hour Division, has determined that a Texas home health agency violated the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). The violation occurred when the home health agency failed to pay employees for all the hours they worked and failed to pay overtime as required.
Investigation by the US Department of Labor, Wage and Hour Division, determined that employees of the home health agency were paid straight time for all hours of work, even when they worked over 40 hours in a work week. Paying employees straight time for hours over 40 in a work week is a violation of federal overtime regulations. Several employees were paid for scheduled hours and not their actual hours worked, leading to FLSA minimum wage and overtime violations.
The result of the investigation led the Department of Labor, Wage and Hour Division, to recover $1,218,320 in back wages for 202 workers.
Acting Administrator of the Wage and Hour Division Jessica Looman stated, “The importance of home health care workers to the families they serve cannot be overstated. The Wage and Hour Division protects these essential workers and works tirelessly to ensure they are paid all of the wages they have earned. We are also here to help responsible employers who follow the law and encourage them to reach out to us for confidential compliance assistance.”
Compliance Perspective
Issue
The Fair Labor Standards Act must be adhered to at all times within your facility. It is imperative that all employees who are responsible for determining rates of pay, deciding overtime pay eligibility, and performing recordkeeping of wages are well trained in the Fair Labor Standards Act. When overtime is required within your facility, it is critical that all federal laws are adhered to for the employee working overtime. Violations of the Act can result in fines and other penalties.
Discussion Points
- Review your policies and procedures on fair wages, overtime pay eligibility, and recordkeeping. Update your policies as needed.
- Train all staff who have responsibility for ensuring fair wages, overtime pay eligibility, and recordkeeping about your policy and procedures, and ensure they demonstrate competence with the requirements. Train all staff who have responsibility for supervising and scheduling minors about the requirements that must be met when you employ minors in your setting. Document that these trainings occurred, and file each signed document in the employee’s education file.
- Periodically audit to ensure that fair wages, overtime pay eligibility, and the recordkeeping of hours worked are accurate and being reported correctly. Also, when employing minors, ensure that all employment requirements and limitations on hours worked are followed.
