The U.S. Department of Labor's Wage and Hour Division discovered that VHS of Michigan, trading as Detroit Medical Center, had failed to pay 13 employees for missed meal periods, a news release said.
The review of payroll records found that the company had automatically deducted meal periods from employees' paid time and failed to make the necessary adjustments when workers performed duties during their meal periods. This caused violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act overtime requirements. The employer has since made changes to its payroll systems and paid the affected employees $46,864 in back wages and damages, the agency said.
“This case should remind all employers to verify and validate employee’s hours worked and to not rely solely on automated payroll systems,” Wage and Hour District Director in Detroit, Timolin Mitchell, said in a statement. “Healthcare workers provide essential services to help people in need but remain among our nation’s lowest-paid workers. They depend upon every dollar earned to support themselves and their families.”
Healthcare workers are essential and provide valuable services but remain among the lowest-paid workers in the US. The division offers resources on wage rules for healthcare workers and a search tool to help determine if someone may be owed back wages. The agency's toll-free helpline provides confidential compliance assistance for employees and employers.
VHS of Michigan is owned by Tenet Health of Dallas and employs over 100,000 workers at roughly 600 locations nationwide. The investigation found that the violations were due to the failure to adjust payroll procedures for recently transferred staff and an error in the company's payroll system, which automatically deducted 30 minutes for meal periods. The company has now corrected its payroll systems, the news release said.
VHS of Michigan is owned by Tenet Health of Dallas which has more than 100,000 workers nationwide, according to the news release.
