Partners
HealthCare Systems Inc. and its affiliated hospitals and health care
companies throughout eastern Massachusetts have agreed to pay 700
employees more than $2.7 million in overtime back wages to resolve a
lawsuit filed by the U.S. Department of Labor alleging violations of
the federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).
"We are pleased
that the department has succeeded in securing such a substantial amount
of back wages for these workers who were not properly paid for overtime
they had worked," said Secretary of Labor Hilda L. Solis.
The
FLSA requires that employees be paid at least the federal minimum wage,
and time and one-half their regular rates of pay for hours worked
beyond 40 per week. The law also requires that employers maintain
accurate records of employees' wages, hours and conditions of
employment.
Partners' management contacted the Labor
Department's Wage and Hour Division after realizing that affiliated
companies might be in violation of the FLSA.
"The problem,"
noted George Rioux, director of the division's Boston District Office,
"was that employees were working for more than one Partners-affiliated
hospital or health care facility during a single workweek, but their
hours worked during those workweeks were not being combined to
determine if overtime was due."
Following the contact by
Partners, a Wage and Hour Division investigation confirmed that the
defendants had failed to aggregate hours on separate payrolls when
certain employees worked for two or more of the defendants during the
same workweek. The Labor Department and Partners agreed that the best
way to resolve the matter was through the filing of a complaint and
consent judgment in federal court.
The Labor Department's suit
was filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts.
The consent judgment, agreed to by the parties, was signed by Judge
Nathaniel M. Gorton on July 21, 2009. Named as defendants in the suit
were: Partners HealthCare Systems Inc., The Brigham and Women's
Hospital Inc., Faulkner Hospital Inc., The General Hospital Corp.
(Massachusetts General Hospital), The McLean Hospital Corp., North
Shore Medical Center Inc., North Shore Physicians Group Inc.,
Newton-Wellesley Hospital, The Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital Corp.,
Rehabilitation Hospital of the Cape and Islands, Shaughnessy-Kaplan
Rehabilitation Hospital Inc., Partners Home Care Inc., Partners Private
Care Inc., FRC Inc. and Partners Community Healthcare Inc.
The
consent judgment prohibits the defendants from future violations of the
FLSA's overtime provisions and orders them to pay the back wages
totaling $2,756,514, which cover the period from Jan. 1, 2007, through
March 21, 2009.
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