Shoddy bookkeeping and pay practices have cost one New York City-based nursing home operator more than a quarter million dollars, the Department of Labor announced last week.
Three nursing homes have paid more than $261,000 in back wages, damages and civil penalties for overtime and minimum wage violations.
A total of $192,622 was paid in back wages and liquidated damages to 89 employees, while $68,796 was paid in civil penalties. The payments were made by three Rhode-Island based facilities owned by Centers Health Care. The parent company, based in New York City, owns about 50 nursing facilities nationwide.
Centers Health Care also has agreed to comply with the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) at all of its locations as part of an enterprise-wide settlement agreement. A spokesman for the company told McKnight’s he was unable to comment on Friday.
The violations stemmed from an investigation by the US Department of Labor Wage and Hour Division. The facilities were found to have paid employees only for scheduled hours, while work performed before or after scheduled shifts was unpaid.
The agency also found that employers failed to total weekly hours for employees who worked at different facilities during the same week and didn’t pay overtime for those total hours.
Additional findings stated the company paid overtime hours at rates lower than what was required by law and failed to record and pay employees for all their worked hours due to erroneous time rounding practices.
