Wyncote, PA (WJET/WFXP) — A Pennsylvania home healthcare agency along with its owner has been ordered to pay more than $810,000 after a federal investigation found 196 workers were denied minimum wage and overtime.
The Department of Labor announced the judgment on Nov. 7 saying the PA agency willfully violated the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).
Investigators from the DOL’s Wage and Hour Division found Wyncote Wellness LLC failed to pay 196 workers the correct overtime rate saying overtime was paid to workers once they spent more than 40 hours in a week with an individual client rather than the standard 40-hour week.
The DOL said workers had multiple clients at a time to see each day along with not paying workers the total amount of hours worked they recorded, did not compensate for travel time between clients and failed to preserve the amount of hours worked between clients.
A consent judgment from the U.S. District Court of Eastern PA ordered Wyncote Wellness and its owner, Dominique Conner, to pay $810,320 in back wages and liquidated damages along with an unspecified civil penalty for what the DOL said were “deliberate offenses.”
“Home healthcare workers provide vital services to the most vulnerable members of our communities, and their work deserves respect and fair compensation,” said Wage and Hour Division District Director James Cain in Philadelphia. “This enforcement action will help to ensure workers are paid their total earnings and remind other employers of their obligations under the law.”
The FLSA requires employees to be paid at least $7.25 an hour and time and a half pay after 40 hours have been logged for the week.
