Michigan nursing home owner ordered to pay nearly $70,000 for not paying managers overtime
Adrienne RobertsThe owner and operator of three nursing homes in Michigan had to pay back nearly $70,000 to nursing home managers who were not paid overtime, as the result of a federal investigation.
The U.S. Department of Labor’s wage and hour division said Tuesday that it recovered $69,022 in back wages and damages owed to managers at Beaconshire Nursing Center and Westwood Nursing Center, both in Detroit, and Chesaning Nursing Center, which is located in Chesaning, about a half-hour south of Saginaw.
The investigation found Amee Patel, the owner and operator of the three nursing homes, denied 45 managers their full wages by regularly alternating the managers' status from hourly to salary in an attempt to evade overtime obligations. Patel paid the managers hourly wages when they worked fewer than 40 hours in a workweek and paid salaried wages when they exceeded 40 hours, the investigation found.
Attempts to contact Patel for comment were unsuccessful Tuesday.
"Business operators cannot casually decide to pay workers as salaried in some weeks and hourly in others," Timolin Mitchell, director of the wage and hour division district in Detroit, said in a news release. "By doing so, Patel clearly violated federal laws by denying workers at her healthcare facilities all their hard-earned pay."
In total, the division recovered $17,173 in back wages for 12 Beaconshire Nursing Center employees, $14,205 in back wages for 21 employees at Westwood Nursing Center and $3,133 in back wages for 12 employees at Chesaning Nursing Center, the release said. The employer also paid an equal amount in liquidated damages, for a total of $69,022. All the facilities provide skilled nursing, physical and occupational therapy.
More:Unionization could help home health care workers with wages, experts say
More:COVID-19 still a worry at nursing homes; booster shots encouraged
The division assessed and received payment of $7,938 in civil money penalties for Patel’s repeat violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act. In 2018, federal investigators found Patel violated overtime regulations when she failed to pay drivers for all their travel and wait times. In 2015, Patel failed to pay employees for attending mandatory trainings, the release said.
Contact Adrienne Roberts: amroberts@freepress.com.