In lower than two months, Donald Trump will likely be sworn in because the forty seventh President of the USA. President-elect Trump has already introduced that he’ll nominate Republican Congresswoman Lori Chavez-DeRemer as his decide to function the following Secretary of the Division of Labor (“DOL”). It stays to be seen if the Trump DOL will proceed the present administration’s focusing on of the healthcare trade.
Certainly, the DOL below President Biden had a busy yr with a pointy focus to focus on the healthcare trade. The DOL issued a dozen press releases from Memorial Day to Labor Day alone regarding settlements with or judgments in opposition to numerous healthcare entities. The settlements and judgments vary from five-figure quantities to $36 million.
The Division of Labor’s tenacity in pursuing potential wage and hour violators within the healthcare trade is spotlighted by a current judgment in opposition to a gaggle of nursing services in Pennsylvania. Following an investigation, the DOL introduced swimsuit in opposition to the homeowners of 15 healthcare services alleging the employers did not correctly pay additional time. After a 13-day trial involving practically 50 witnesses, a federal court docket awarded $35.8 million in additional time backpay and liquidated damages to six,000 present and former employees employed by residential expert nursing, rehabilitation, and assisted residing services within the Keystone State. The court docket discovered that the employers of those services engaged in actionable wrongdoing by: (i) willfully failing to pay workers for all hours labored, together with work achieved throughout meal breaks; (ii) failing to include all promised compensation, together with non-discretionary bonuses and shift differentials, when calculating additional time pay; (iii) avoiding paying additional time by incorrectly treating workers as exempt from the act’s additional time necessities; and (iv) not protecting correct information of hours workers labored and compensation due for these hours. These wage and hour points are typically avoidable by implementing finest practices and compliance protocols.
The DOL’s busy yr to this point is a cautionary story to employers within the healthcare trade. Whereas the jury continues to be out on whether or not the incoming administration will proceed to tighten the screws on the healthcare trade, implementing the suitable protocols and procedures will be sure that irrespective of which get together is in energy, there may be minimal threat of antagonistic findings in an investigation. Greatest apply dictates that each one employers ought to assess and audit their wage and hour practices, together with (i) making certain that workers who’re exempt from additional time pay are correctly labeled as such below relevant federal and state regulation; (ii) making certain that impartial contractors are correctly labeled as such below relevant federal and state regulation; (iii) making certain that non-discretionary bonuses and different relevant compensation are included within the calculation of the common charge of pay for additional time functions for non-exempt workers; and (iv) making certain compliance with relevant meal interval and relaxation break legal guidelines. Employers within the healthcare trade must be ready within the occasion of a Division of Labor audit. Working with exterior counsel to make sure correct compliance with the varied federal and state wage and hour legal guidelines mitigates the danger of a lawsuit and potential damages.