Home Health Agency to Pay Millions for FLSA Violations

The FLSA is a federal wage law from 1938 that requires employers to pay non-exempt employees one and one-half times their regular rate of pay for all hours worked over 40 during the workweek. It also sets certain record-keeping requirements.

According to the release and consent decree, the company and its owner will pay $823,265.37 in back wages and an additional $823,265.37 in penalties (a total of $1,646,530.74) to 288 workers to whom the company “knowingly denied overtime pay labor”.

Under federal discrimination laws, such as Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, only the employer, not individual managers, can be held personally liable. Under the FLSA (and the Family Medical Leave Act), individuals such as CEOs, managers, and supervisors can be held personally liable for violations of the law. In this case, the court found the company (Aging with Care Inc) and its owner, Hag, jointly and severally liable for the damages.

The defendants also agreed to pay a civil monetary penalty of $56,218.88,

Last year, the DOL filed a complaint against the company, alleging that it violated the FLSA between April 21, 2019, and January 1, 2022.

The company provides home health services, including respite care, private nursing and disability support, according to the release. This means that during the period in which these workers were treating the most vulnerable population during the COVID-19 pandemic, these same workers were denied adequate compensation.

Specifically, the company:

• “Paid home health aides maintained their regular rates for all hours worked and did not pay overtime when required.” This means the employees were paid straight pay instead of the overtime rate of one and a half times their regular rate of pay for all hours worked over 40 during the work week.
• “Failure to combine hours between multiple clients for purposes of calculating overtime.” When an employee works for a company, overtime hours worked include all work performed for that employer and should not be split between different clients or different departments.

For example, if an employee works 40 hours during the work week as a teller at a bank and to earn extra money, works an additional 20 hours that week at the same bank at night as a customer service representative, the employee has worked 60 hours during that work week and has entitled to 20 hours of overtime. The overtime pay rate will be determined by dividing the total compensation for that workweek by the number of hours worked and then multiplying by 1.5.

• • “Has not paid home health aides for time spent traveling between clients’ homes in the same work day.” Once the work day begins, all “work time” must be accounted for and this includes travel during the work day from site to work site. It will not include meal periods where the employee is completely off work for 30 minutes or more, nor will it include travel time to and from work.
• “Maintains inaccurate records of hours worked due to failure to track hours for travel time.” All hours worked must be recorded and maintained by the employer for non-exempt employees.
• “I failed to maintain payroll records for part of the investigation period.” Employers must fully cooperate with any DOL investigation and may not destroy or tamper with records.

Although the FLSA is a complex, cumbersome, and outdated law, it is the law, and employers must figure out how to strictly comply with it. This company clearly failed to compensate their workers in accordance with the law and now not only is the company paying, but so is the owner.

I can probably find an FLSA violation in most workplaces. Employers simply refuse to understand the complexities of the law and this can lead to significant financial risk, not to mention employees not being legally compensated for their work.