At our law firm, we fight for the wage-and-hour rights of employees in Maryland, Virginia, Washington, D.C., and California. Those rights are based on federal and state laws and include being paid minimum wage and proper overtime, being paid on time, being paid for all time actually on duty, being classified properly as an employee and not facing retaliation when they assert these rights.
Federal investigation finds health care company falsified records to avoid paying overtime
On March 22, the Wage and Hour Division of the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) issued a news release about its investigation into allegations of widespread unpaid overtime at a Virginia home health care company. The employer had shorted almost 60 employees about $140,000 in collective overtime pay due under the Federal Labor Standards Act (FLSA), which in most cases requires overtime pay for all hours worked beyond 40 in a workweek.
In this case, the agency also imposed on the employer a $30,319 penalty for willfully violating the law. For example, the employer kept separate payroll records for overtime hours from which it paid out regular straight-time pay mislabeled as reimbursements. Instead, the law required that the employer should have paid one-and-one-half times the regular rate of pay for earned overtime.
Seek legal advice for overtime concerns
Any employee who feels they may have been shorted overtime pay should speak with an experienced employment lawyer to understand how wage-and-hour laws apply to them. If their employer has violated state or federal overtime requirements, potential legal remedies may include claims for financial recovery filed with government agencies or lawsuits.