Dive Brief:
- A New York City-based in-home health provider has agreed to pay a $12.5 million to settle allegations it denied workers overtime (Medvedeva v. Assistcare Home Health Services, No. 1:17-cv-05739 (E.D.N.Y. June 26, 2020)).
- The agreement provides for a fund of $6,500,000, which will be paid to class members. In requiring the employer to reform the pay practices the lawsuit challenged, the settlement creates "ongoing injunctive relief" valued at $6 million, according to a memorandum.
- In addition to the workers' claims about overtime, they also alleged Preferred Home Care of New York violated the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) and state law by failing to compensate them for all hours worked, including for time spent traveling between clients.
Dive Insight:
The FLSA requires employers to pay nonexempt workers time and one half their regular rate of pay for all hours worked beyond 40 in a workweek.
Overtime violations are a frequent topic of wage and hour litigation, and they often generate expensive settlements. A Panera Bread operator, Covelli Enterprises, for example, recently agreed to pay $4.6 million to settle a class action lawsuit alleging assistant managers were improperly classified as exempt from overtime pay. And PNC Bank said it would pay $2.75 million to settle allegations customer service representatives were regularly required to work off the clock and were denied overtime pay.
The FLSA also touches on travel time. It does not obligate employers to compensate employees for the time spent traveling between home and work, but it does require employers to pay workers for time spent "in travel as a part of their principal activity, such as travel from job site to job site during the workday."
