On December 6, 2017, a former home healthcare worker for American Care Partners at Home, Inc. filed a lawsuit in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia alleging violations of federal overtime laws. The named plaintiff brought her claim individually and on behalf of similarly situated individuals, which includes all home healthcare workers who have worked for American Care Partners at Home, Inc. from January 1, 2015 to the present. American Care Partners at Home, Inc. is a home healthcare agency that provides in-home healthcare services for children and adults throughout Virginia.
The Complaint alleges that as a result of its misclassification of home healthcare workers as independent contractors, American Care Partners at Home, Inc. violated federal law when it failed to pay its home healthcare workers the legally required overtime premium, which is one and one-half (1.5) times their regular hourly rate for all overtime hours worked. Specifically, the Complaint alleges that Defendants shorted them by paying for overtime hours at a straight time rate, rather than at time-and-a-half. The case is filed as a Fair Labor Standards Act collective action. The named plaintiff seeks unpaid overtime wages and liquidated (double) damages.
Plaintiffs' attorney Robert L. Schug of Nichols Kaster, PLLP explained, “Our client simply seeks payment of the full wages that she and other healthcare workers in her position have earned. We look forward to working on behalf of this important class of workers to make sure that they are paid in accordance with federal law.”
Plaintiffs are represented by Robert L. Schug and Jason D. Friedman from Nichols Kaster, PLLP, which has offices in Minneapolis, Minnesota and San Francisco, California and Gregg C. Greenberg of Zipin, Amster, & Greenberg in Silver Spring, Maryland. The case is entitled, Baker v. American Care Partners at Home, Inc. No. 1:17-cv-01387 (Eastern District of Virginia).
Additional information about how to make a claim for overtime pay in the case may be found at www.nka.com or by calling Nichols Kaster, PLLP toll free at (877) 344-4628.