Indian-American employer ordered to pay $69K overtime
Darpan News Desk IANS, 10 Feb, 2023 12:56 PM
New York, Feb 10 (IANS) An Indian-origin owner and operator of three nursing homes in the US state of Michigan had to pay back $69,000 to managers who were not paid their overtime, according to a federal investigation.
Amee Patel owned and ran the operations at Chesaning Nursing Center and Detroit-based Beaconshire Nursing Center and Westwood Nursing Center.
The Department of Labor's Wage and Hour Division recovered the whole amount in back wages and damages owed to 45 managers who worked at these three centers.
It found that Patel paid the managers hourly wages when they worked fewer than 40 hours in the workweek and paid salaried wages when they exceeded 40 hours.
By regularly alternating the managers' status from hourly to salary, Patel voided their claim that the managers were overtime exempt, the investigation found.
"Business operators cannot casually decide to pay workers as salaried in some weeks and hourly in others. By doing so, Amee Patel clearly violated federal laws by denying workers at her healthcare facilities all their hard-earned pay," Timolin Mitchell, Wage and Hour Division District Director in Detroit, said.
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 that Patel violated overtime regulations when she failed to pay drivers for all their travel and wait times.
In 2015, she failed to pay employees for attending mandatory trainings.
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.
Patel also paid an equal amount in liquidated damages, for a total of $69,022.
In fiscal year 2022, the Detroit district office recovered nearly $2.2 million in back wages and liquidated damages for almost 3,000 workers in Eastern Michigan, of which nearly $500,000 was owed to healthcare workers.
Tensions simmering in Jerusalem in recent days have taken deadly turn as militants in the Gaza Strip and Israel exchanged attacks, with at least 20 people killed, according to officials.
Many Indian Americans are wracked with guilt over emerging from more than a year of isolation as relatives overseas struggle to find vaccines, hospital beds and, fatefully, their breath.
Many of the 64 people affected either fainted or reported dizziness. Some got nauseous or vomited, and a few had racing hearts, chest pain or other symptoms.
In a statement Friday, the two pharmaceuticals said their submission to the European Medicines Agency is based on an advanced study in more than 2,000 adolescents that showed their vaccine to be safe and effective.
In the same breath, however, the speech marking Biden's first 100 days as commander-in-chief offered a measure of comfort by suggesting Buy American would not offend the terms of trade deals like the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement.
