It looks like another wage war is brewing in Massachusetts, where the U.S. Department of Labor just dropped a bombshell lawsuit on 25 Massachusetts-based skilled nursing facilities allegedly stiffing employees out of rightfully earned overtime pay, according to the U.S. Department of Labor.
The facilities have been accused of pulling a fast one on at least 624 workers, automatically deducting 30 minutes for meal breaks that employees reportedly often worked through, causing a deficiency in wages, this practice not only allegedly shortchanged these workers but also ballooned into a failure to adhere to the Fair Labor Standards Act - with the department asserting employers owe back pay plus damages.
We're not just talking pennies and dimes here. The Department of Labor is gunning to reclaim unpaid wages stretching back from September 27, 2018, through September 14, 2021, as well as equal amounts in liquidated damages, effectively doubling the monetary blow for "employers who willfully deny their employees their hard-earned wages," said Maia Fisher, Regional Solicitor of Labor in Boston, in a statement.
But it's not all about the benjamins, the Wage and Hour Division’s Carlos Matos weighed in, noting that when workers who are tasked with caring for our society's most vulnerable are undercut in their own livelihoods, it creates a ripple effect that transcends the individual, impacting their families and the community at large it's a chain reaction that diminishes the quality of care for everyone involved, Matos implied.
Last year's tally by the Wage and Hour Division was no small feat either, having recovered close to $32 million in back wages for over 24,000 healthcare workers, while also doling out more than $2 million in penalties across the healthcare sector. Next Step Healthcare, established back in 2014 and caught up in this recent suit, may be facing a reckoning for their alleged disregard of labor laws, with their sprawling network that reached across towns from Agawam to Worcester now under close legal scrutiny.
Those who think they've been duped out of their dues can turn to the Wage and Hour Division's resources, including a handy back wage search tool and a recently released timesheet app, designed to keep employers honest and workers rightfully compensated in a landscape where every penny must be fought for and vigilance is the daily bread of justice.
