Federal and state investigators recently penalized a host of skilled nursing and assisted living facilities for wage theft and other labor law violations.
A Department of Labor investigation unveiled that five Michigan SNFs and an affiliated assisted living center owed nearly $1 million in back pay to more than 1,300 employees.
Officials said the facilities automatically deducted meal breaks that some workers never took, and that they failed to pay employees for time worked before and after scheduled shifts.
Those involved in the settlement are: Beaumont Affiliated Health and Rehabilitation Centers in West Bloomfield; Woodward Hills in Bloomfield Hills; Evergreen in Southfield; Shelby in Shelby Charter Township; and Shorepoint and the Shorepoint Village Assisted Living Facility in Saint Clair Shores.
In addition to paying the back wages, Premier Healthcare Management, which oversees the facilities, has agreed to conduct employee training, provide a residential care facilities fact sheet to all employees and conduct quarterly reviews of payroll and time sheets to ensure accuracy.
Similarly, last month the Massachusetts attorney general issued 15 citations totaling nearly $85,000 to Joseph and Michael Schwartz, the owner-operators of five nursing homes in the state under the now-defunct Skyline Healthcare, for failing to pay 106 employees, provide pay stubs to 369 employees and furnish payroll records.
The facilities involved were closed in April for endangering residents.
The penalties do not include $64,749 in back wages, which were covered by court-appointed receiver KCP Advisory Group.
The Labor Department’s Wage and Hour Division is responsible for enforcing federal labor laws. It protects more than 144 million workers across the nation.
From the August 2019 Issue of McKnight's Long-Term Care News
