A current employee of All HomeCaring and At Home With Care, Inc. filed a lawsuit on December 30, 2016, in the United States District Court for the District of Minnesota alleging violations of federal and state overtime laws. The named plaintiff, a home health care worker, brought her claim individually and on behalf of similarly situated employees who worked for All HomeCaring and/or At Home With Care, Inc.
The Complaint alleges that from January 1, 2015 (when federal overtime regulations were revised to provide overtime protections to home health care workers employed through agencies) to the present, All HomeCaring and At Home With Care, Inc. violated federal law when they failed to pay their home health care workers the legally required overtime premium, which is one and one-half (1.5) times their regular hourly rate for all overtime hours worked. The Complaint also alleges that All HomeCaring failed to pay home care workers legally required overtime pay for hours worked over 48 per week, in violation of Minnesota state overtime law. Specifically, the Complaint alleges that Defendants shorted the home health care workers by paying them 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, and a class action under Minnesota law. The named plaintiff seeks unpaid overtime wages and double damages.
Plaintiffs' attorney Michele R. Fisher of Nichols Kaster, PLLP explained, "When the Department of Labor implemented new home health aide overtime regulations, effective January 2015, it made clear that home health aides employed through agencies must be fairly compensated at time-and-a-half when they work overtime hours. These workers spend significant hours caring for those who have trouble caring for themselves and should be fairly compensated when they work overtime doing so."
Plaintiffs are represented by Michele R. Fisher and Jason D. Friedman from Nichols Kaster, PLLP, which has offices in Minneapolis, Minnesota and San Francisco, California and Scott E. Brady of Bohrer Brady, LLC in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The case is entitled, Allen v. All HomeCaring and At Home With Care, Inc. No.16-CV-04409 (District of Minnesota).
