Overtime in the Health Care Industry
I have regularly reported that FLSA overtime cases continue to be filed in large numbers. Recently, the New York Times published an article addressing overtime issues in hospitals and nursing homes. Robert Pear wrote that the Obama administration is looking into pay practices throughout the health care industry. The investigation was prompted after a finding that many hospitals and nursing homes do not properly pay overtime to nurses and other employees who work in excess of 40 hours per week. The Department of Labor has recently recovered more than $1.7 million in back wages for approximately 4,000 employees of SSM Health Care, a Roman Catholic system. Partners HealthCare System in Boston paid more than $2.7 million in back overtime wages to 700 employees. There is a proposed class action settlement in California involving Kaiser Permanente, requiring payment of $7.25 million to hundreds of medical workers who were allegedly classified as exempt. Mr. Pear notes that "The Labor Department has hired 250 new wage-and-hour investigators, representing a staff increase of one-third. The government wants to make sure workers get "every penny they earn," said Kenneth Stripling, a Labor Department official leading enforcement efforts in Birmingham, Ala.....Nursing assistants, licensed practical nurses, janitors and cooks "are particularly vulnerable to wage violations," Mr. Stripling said." The president of the Greater New York Hospital Association is quoted as saying: "Hospitals are complicated organizations, and record-keeping for employees is astronomically complicated...Workers cannot just drop patient care when the lunch hour arrives. We are not like an assembly line, which can shut down at lunchtime, or a bank, where people work 9 to 5."
Practice pointer. As the DOL continues to increase enforcement of the FLSA, especially as it pertains to overtime, many industries, including health care, will be subject to increased scrutiny. Now is a good a time as any for employers to review the classification of their employees to make sure that those entitled to overtime receive it if they work over 40 hours per week.
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