A federal investigation has recovered $950,000 in back wages and liquidated damages and $50,000 in punitive damages from a New Hampshire home healthcare company that denied overtime wages to 36 employees in New Hampshire and Vermont, the US Department of Labor (DOL) announced on July 11, 2023.
Investigators with the DOL’s Wage and Hour Division found that, between April 2020 and August 2022, the company and its president paid home care workers straight-time rates for their hours over 40 in a workweek. In addition to its recovery of wages and liquidated damages, the Division assessed and the employer has paid $36,324 in civil money penalties for willful violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act’s (FLSA) overtime requirements.
A related consent judgment and order, entered in the US District Court for the District of New Hampshire, requires the company and its president to pay $50,000 in punitive damages to certain employees and also permanently prohibits them from violating the FLSA’s anti-retaliation requirements. Among other things, the order enjoins them from retaliating, and taking or threatening any adverse action against any current or former employees because they asserted their rights under the FLSA.
According to the DOL, this is not the first time that the company and its president have run afoul of federal wage laws. In two 2018 investigations, the Division identified violations of the FLSA and recovered $100,055 in overtime wages owed to 25 employees. The Division later learned the employer allegedly coerced some affected workers into kicking back the money. In October 2022, the department obtained a consent preliminary injunction in the US District Court for the District of New Hampshire forbidding the company and its president from interfering with the current investigation.
“Here in New England and across the nation, the Wage and Hour Division frequently finds wage violations in its healthcare investigations. In fiscal year 2022, the Division recovered over $14.9 million in back wages for more than 22,000 workers in the healthcare industry,” said Wage and Hour Division District Director Steven McKinney in Manchester, New Hampshire. “Home care industry employers can avoid violations and their significant financial consequences by making sure their pay practices comply with federal law. Industry employers should review their practices and contact our office with questions about the Fair Labor Standards Act.”
Compliance Perspective
Issue
The FLSA sets minimum wage, overtime pay, recordkeeping, and youth employment standards for employment subject to its provisions. Unless exempt, covered employees must be paid at least the minimum wage and not less than one and one-half times their regular rates of pay for overtime hours worked. The FLSA’s anti-retaliation clause forbids any person from terminating or in any other manner discriminating against any employee because of such employee’s protected activities, including filing or cooperating with an investigation of the Wage and Hour Division. Employees have the right to speak freely with investigators, attorneys, or other officials from the DOL during an investigation. In the event the investigation results in a determination that the employer owes back wages to employees, those employees have a right to receive and keep the full amount of any back wages (after taxes) due to them. It is against the law for an employer or any person acting on their behalf to ask for this money back or ask employees to give up their current or future wages to get money from the investigation. Employers may not require any worker who receives back wages from the Department to return those monies to the employer.
Discussion Points
- Review your policies and procedures on fair wages, overtime pay eligibility, and recordkeeping. Also review your policy for prevention of retaliation in the workplace. Update if needed.
- Train all staff with responsibility for determining fair wages, overtime pay eligibility, and recordkeeping so that they are knowledgeable about your policies and procedures to ensure they comply with federal and state requirements. Ensure that staff are aware of your nonretaliation policies and the steps they should take if they suspect wrongdoing, including the use of the anonymous Hotline to report incidents against themselves or their coworkers. Also ensure that staff know what to do during an investigation and that they should cooperate with investigators. Document that these trainings occurred, and file each signed document in the employee’s education file.
- Periodically audit to ensure compliance with minimum wage laws, and that overtime pay eligibility and recordkeeping are accurate and being reported correctly. Also audit staff understanding to ensure that they are aware of your policy of nonretaliation in the workplace and how to report any concerns.
*This news alert has been prepared by Med-Net Concepts, LLC for informational purposes only and is not intended to provide legal advice.*
