The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) recently uncovered several systemic wage violations in three states.
According to a DOL press release, systemic wage violations by a Bowling Green-based caregiving provider were found in Kentucky, Alabama, and Tennessee.
“The recovery of wages earned by hundreds of hard-working caregivers employed by Home Instead facilities in Alabama, Kentucky, and Tennessee demonstrates the division’s uncompromising commitment to essential workers,” Wage and Hour Division Acting District Director Richard Blaylock said in Louisville, Kentucky. “When employers deny workers the wages they earn, they make it harder for those workers to provide for themselves and their families. By underpaying, they also gain an unfair advantage over other employers who abide by the law.”
The DOL recovered $201,356 in back wages for 320 workers, according to the release, which also said that Home Instead Senior Care violated the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), which establishes wages, overtime pay, employment standards, and record keeping.
According to the release, investigators found violations in seven locations, including "failure to combine all hours worked by employees when they worked in multiple positions within the same workweek, resulting in failure to pay overtime after 40 hours worked in a workweek; failure to count and pay for hours worked while on-call; failure to count and pay for all travel time and work performed before and after scheduled shifts; failure to include certain bonuses into the rate-of-pay when calculating overtime pay, resulting in underpayment of overtime hours; [and] failure to retain records of all hours worked by employees."
The FLSA applies and protects employees in both the private and public sectors.
