Injunction issued against home healthcare business
Chesapeake’s Heavenly Hands ordered to comply with labor investigation
A federal judge ordered a Chesapeake home healthcare business to stop interfering with a U.S. Department of Labor investigation into the company’s alleged failure to pay overtime to employees and keep proper records.
In a preliminary injunction issued last week, U.S. District Judge Arenda Wright Allen also ordered Heavenly Hands Home Healthcare of Chesapeake and owner Lauren Wilson not to retaliate against employees who cooperate with the investigation, or demand kickbacks of back wages the company is required to pay, according to a news release issued Friday by the labor department.
The injunction further states the business must provide investigators with payroll records dating to July 2018, including time and attendance records for employees. Heavenly Hands also was ordered to provide employees with information about their rights under the Fair Labor Standards Act, including their right to speak with investigators without repercussion.
“Workers must feel empowered to step forward to complain whenever employers deny them wages they have earned — the law prohibits retaliation or intimidation for speaking up,” Wage and Hour Division District Director Roberto Melendez said in the release.
Wilson could not be reached for comment Friday through the business’s phone number or email, or through a listed home number. No attorney was indicated for her or the business in court records.
Heavenly Hands’ Chesapeake website states that it provides “a wide range of home health care services to patients all throughout the Hampton Roads area.” There are other Heavenly Hands Home Healthcare businesses listed in the area, but the Chesapeake facility is the only one mentioned in court filings.
The labor department filed suit against the business and Wilson last month in U.S. District Court in Norfolk after the department determined they had denied employees overtime payments and failed to maintain appropriate records of the hours they worked from at least July 2019 through July 2021, the release said.
In response to the department’s findings, the company agreed to pay $413,382 in back wages and liquidated damages to at least 37 employees and comply with federal labor law. It also provided the department with proof of payment of back wages and liquidated damages owed, which the employees purportedly signed, the release said.
Further investigation, however, found that the employees’ signatures on forms saying they’d received payment were forged, the release said. Investigators also discovered the business had failed to pay the employees back wages and liquidated damages, and had forged payroll records to show proofs of payment.
Investigators also learned Heavenly Hands had threatened employees and tried to dissuade them from talking to investigators, the release said.