Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Pittsburgh home health agency must pay workers $1.6 million

- By Lauren Rosenblatt

A Pittsburgh home health care agency must pay $1.6 million in back wages and damages after misclassif­ying health aides as independen­t contractor­s, a U.S. District Court ruled.

The court found Christian Home Healthcare Corp, which is based in East Allegheny, had violated the Fair Labor Standards Act. It ruled that the company incorrectl­y identified 546 home health aides as independen­t contractor­s rather than employees, a distinctio­n that prevented the aides from receiving overtime pay.

A debate over how to determine the classifica­tion of workers has played out in courts and state legislatur­es for years, but it has intensifie­d recently as more people turn to the gig economy for work.

The Trump administra­tion moved in January to clear up the confusion, issuing a new rule clarifying the difference based on two main factors: the nature and degree of control over the work and the worker’s opportunit­y for profit or loss based on initiative or investment. In other words, the distinctio­n hinged on how much control workers have over things like their own schedule and their own tools, as well as how much control they have over how much money they make.

That rule is set to go into effect this month, but President Joe Biden’s Labor Department may move to pause the rule, alter it or scrap it entirely.

For workers, the distinctio­n — and the confusion around it — can determine things like access to unemployme­nt benefits, minimum wage requiremen­ts, overtime pay and paid time off. It touches on industries across the board and affects workers from nail salon technician­s to Uber drivers to constructi­on workers to financial consultant­s.

In this case, the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvan­ia ruled that Christian Home Healthcare had misclassif­ied the home health aides and then failed to pay overtime wages for instances when they worked more than 40 hours a week.

The agency did eventually change the classifica­tion but continued to pay “straight-time rates” for overtime hours rather than paying the overtime rate of one and one-times their regular rates.

Work weeks for some employees could be as long as 90 hours, according to the complaint filed with the District Court.

The agency also failed to keep a record of the number of hours worked by office staff, the ruling found.

Christian Home Healthcare officials could not be reached for comment by deadline.

The court’s action followed an investigat­ion into Christian Home Healthcare by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour division.

“Health care workers risk their lives every day to care for our loved ones and remain on the front lines keeping our country healthy and safe,” Jessica Looman, the division’s principal deputy administra­tor, said in a prepared statement. “They deserve to be paid every cent they have earned.”

Christian Home Healthcare and its owner are now on the hook for $812,675 in back wages and an equal amount in liquidated damages to the affected home health aides, as well as $20,000 in civil money penalties.

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