NY operators ordered to pay $2M in back overtime wages

A federal court has ordered a New York state skilled nursing chain to pay more than $2 million in back overtime wages and an additional $133,000 in civil money penalties for failing to give 844 employees the proper pay.

A U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) investigation found that The Grand Healthcare System, Queens, New York, failed to properly compensate employees at five nursing and rehabilitation facilities across the state between 2013 and 2016. Among the multiple citations, the DOL charged the company with misapplying the FLSA overtime exemptions, paying employees for scheduled hours instead of actual hours worked, refusing to compensate employees for working through meal breaks and docking employees for short rest breaks.

Other citations highlighted the nursing homes’ inadequate documentation procedures, the DOJ noted, saying the facilities had “failed to include shift differentials in workers’ regular rates of pay when determining overtime rates” and “failed to maintain accurate time and payroll records.”

Part-owner and CEO Jeremy Strauss has agreed to pay the penalties outlined in the Consent Judgement without contest, according to the (Albany) Times Union.  

“The U.S. Department of Labor won’t hesitate to take appropriate legal action to ensure that employees are properly compensated for their hours of work. When they are underpaid, it is not just these vulnerable workers who are hurt. The underpayments also undercut those employers who obey the law and pay their workers correctly,” said Jeffrey S. Rogoff, the regional solicitor of labor in New York, in the DOJ news release.

Pamela Tabar

Pamela Tabar was editor-in-chief of I Advance Senior Care from 2013-2018. She has worked as a writer and editor for healthcare business media since 1998, including as News Editor of Healthcare Informatics. She has a master’s degree in journalism from Kent State University and a master’s degree in English from the University of York, England.