A healthcare provider with a history of violating federal wage laws since 2013 is back in the hot seat with the US Department of Labor, which seeks more than $180,000 in back wages for misclassifying workers at a staffing agency.
Fahim Uddin, who owns a health management company and a staffing agency in Michigan, is the subject of a new complaint that alleges Reliance Staffing LLC classified workers as independent contractors instead of employees. The complaint alleges that Reliance failed to pay $90,765 in overtime to 70 registered nurses, licensed practical nurses, and certified nursing assistants.
“Independent contractors control their own work and are not economically dependent on one company for their livelihood,” Wage and Hour Midwest Deputy Regional Administrator Timolin Mitchell in Detroit said in a press release announcing the filed complaint. “In this case, Reliance Staffing clearly created schedules, assigned work tasks, set rules for the registered nurses, licensed practical nurses and certified nursing assistants, who performed work that was critical for their employer’s business. These factors, among others, make them employees.”
Reliance Staffing was incorporated in Michigan in February 2022, but the Department of Labor’s press release noted that it did not begin operating until a month later. The investigation reviewed employment records and pay practices from March 23, 2022, to Aug. 5, 2022, the press release said. The complaint states the Reliance did not keep accurate records of the number of hours worked and daily sign-in/sign-out sheets from March 23, 2022, to April 11, 2022.
The complaint also notes that Reliance recruits nursing staff to work only at Pioneer Healthcare Management, which is also owned by Uddin. Pioneer operates 11 skilled nursing facilities and two specialty hospitals in southeast Michigan.
A man who answered the phone Monday at Pioneer told McKnight’s Long-Term Care News that Uddin would not be in work for the week and provided a phone number for Uddin’s lawyer, who did not return a call seeking comment.
The Department of Labor is seeking a total of $181,531, which represents the back wages owed plus an equal amount in liquidated damages for the employees. The department also wants the court to issue an injunction “forbidding” Uddin and Reliance from future wage violations.
Uddin has been the subject of five other complaints from the Department of Labor dating back to 2013.
The complaints — a summary of which was provided to McKnight’s on Monday — focus on recordkeeping failures regarding overtime pay, bonuses and meal deductions. The first investigation, which examined records from Sept. 22, 2012, to Sept. 21, 2015, resulted in Uddin paying $52,400 in owed wages to 125 employees of Oakridge Manor Nursing and Rehabilitation Center. The second investigation, covering June 1, 2016, to May 31, 2018, resulted in Uddin owing more than $8,600 in overtime pay to 18 employees, also at Oakridge. Two other investigations at Oakridge did not result in any money owed, but the department noted more recordkeeping failures.
The fifth investigation resulted in Uddin owing more than $64,000 in back wages to 138 employees of Boulevard Manor Nursing and Rehabilitation Center along with civil penalties of $24,000 for repeated violations.
