On May 17, Independent Home Care of Michigan, LLC, and owners Mary Clark and Kathryn Flick were found liable to pay 23 home health care workers after a U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) Wage and Hour Division investigation determined the company was in violation of overtime wages.
According to the U.S. Department of Labor website, the owners were ordered to pay $93,331 because their company failed to pay companion workers earned overtime wages.
“The U.S. Department of Labor is determined to ensure employers comply with the law and will take all necessary actions to hold them responsible,” Regional Solicitor of Labor Christine Heri said, according to the U.S. DOL website. “The department is often the only advocate for workers denied their rightful wages, and we are committed to being their voice.”
According to the release, the DOL concluded that the company was in violation of the Home Health Care Final Rule of 2013, which requires employers to pay overtime for any work beyond 40 hours a week. This rule went into effect in 2015, and the company’s violations took place between Jan. 2018 and June 2019.
“The Home Health Care Final Rule made significant changes that recognize the critical tasks and long hours performed by home health care providers and required employers to begin compensating workers for overtime in January 2015,” Wage and Hour Regional Administrator Michael Lazzeri told the U.S. DOL website.
Independent Home Health Care made an argument regarding liquidated damages, “claiming ignorance of the change in the law and reliance on advice given by the department on the old law in 1999 and a community agency who contacted the services of Independent Home Care.”
The court said if Independent Home Health Care could make continuous efforts to stay up-to-date with the “ever-changing laws,” they could avoid paying liquidated damages fees.
The Wage and Hour Division investigations from 2019 to 2021 have recovered over $747,926 for Michigan health care workers due to violations of worker protections that fall under the Fair Labor Standards Act.
