Home Health & Hospice Week

DOL is onto agencies’ tricks such as misclassifying employees and neglecting to combine hours between locations.

Failing to pay overtime and minimum wage has socked two Texas home care agencies with a hefty $1 million bill.

Alegre Home Health Care in Mission and Pas Home Care in Weslaco “shortchanged employees by violating numerous federal regulations that govern how workers must legally be paid,” the Department of Labor says in a release. The agencies carried out many of the usual violations, including failing to combine hours worked to calculate wages and overtime; and adjusting wages in weeks where employees worked over 40 hours per week to avoid overtime rates, the DOL says.

The DOL Wage and Hour Division recovered more than $1 million owed to 859 home care workers, it says. “Improper pay practices in the industry remain a systemic problem in Texas and across the nation,” the agency stresses.

The recovery included $900,786 for 716 employees of Alegre Home Health Care and $140,620 for 143 employees of Pas Home Care.

Other recent wage-related cases include:

In Virginia: WHD recovered nearly $900,000 in back wages and damages from Norfolk-based Advantage Home Care and co-owners Dondra Nichols and Phillip Simons, DOL says in a release. They failed to pay overtime for hours exceeding 40 in a week and failed to keep accurate records of time worked. “We encourage other home care employers to evaluate their own pay practices to ensure they are in compliance with the law,” WHD District Director Roberto Melendez says in the release.

In Illinois: DOL has filed a complaint in federal court seeking more than $140,000 for 41 people employed by NurseRight Staffing Agency of Rockford, the agency says in a release. That figure represents $70,488 in back wages and an equal amount in liquidated damages. NurseRight misclassified the employees as independent contractors and failed to make and maintain complete and accurate time and pay records, according to the release. The suit also names the company’s manager, Kwame Adjekum.