Pittsburgh-based agency paid 218 workers straight time when the law required it to pay overtime rates and tried to hide the wage theft.
Everest Home Care LLC, a Pittsburgh-based home care agency, and owner Bhuwan Acharya must pay 218 employees more than $1.4 million in back wages and damages for not paying overtime wages. The company then manipulated records to hide the wage theft, according to the U.S. Department of Labor.
The department’s Wage and Hour Division in Pittsburgh investigated and determined the employer paid workers a straight-time hourly rate instead of one-and-one-half their required rate for hours over 40 in a workweek, according to a department press release.
The investigation also revealed that Everest Home Care, which provides personal assistance, home- and community-based services, and long-term living assistance, attempted to mask the wage discrepancy by representing straight-time pay as overtime when overtime wages were required. Everest also failed to include recruitment commissions and hourly coronavirus hazard pay in employees’ required rates of pay when calculating overtime.
All these actions violate the Fair Labor Standards Act.
“Home health care workers provide vital services to people in need and their families,” said Jessica Looman, principal deputy Wage and Hour Division administrator. “The U.S. Department of Labor is committed to enforcing worker protections and holding accountable employers who defy the law and deny workers the hard-earned wages on which they depend to care for themselves and their families.”
Entered in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania on Friday, the consent judgement—a decision reached by a court upon the agreement of all parties involved—requires Everest Home Care and Acharya to pay $719,962 in back wages and an equal amount in liquidated damages.
Additionally, the division assessed $85,075 in civil money penalties given the willful nature of the employers’ FLSA violations.
In fiscal year 2021, the division recovered more than $13.8 million for more than 17,000 healthcare industry workers, according to the department.
“Wage theft is an all-too-common concern in the healthcare industry, and we are determined to use our resources to hold employers who violate federal labor laws accountable to the fullest extent,” said Solicitor of Labor Seema Nanda. “By recovering wages and liquidated damages, when appropriate, for workers we send a clear message to employers in all industries that consequences can be costly for employers who flout the law.”
“The U.S. Department of Labor is committed to enforcing worker protections and holding accountable employers who defy the law and deny workers the hard-earned wages on which they depend to care for themselves and their families.”
— Jessica Looman, principal deputy Wage and Hour Division administrator
Carol Davis is the Nursing Editor at HealthLeaders, an HCPro brand.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
Everest Home Care LLC paid workers a straight-time hourly rate instead of one-and-one-half their required rate for hours over 40 in a workweek.
Everest also failed to include recruitment commissions and hourly coronavirus hazard pay in employees' required rates of pay when calculating overtime.
All these actions violate the Fair Labor Standards Act.