posted by [color=#983222]littler mendelson on november 02, 2010
the washington nurses association has filed class actions against four hospitals in washington state, evergreen
hospital medical center, good samaritan hospital, providence holy family hospital, and tacoma general hospital, alleging that the hospitals failed to provide nurses with the meal and rest breaks required by state law and, in some cases, collective bargaining agreements. the lawsuits seek back pay and other damages on behalf of well over 1000 nurses. washington law provides that employees generally must receive at least two paid ten-minute breaks and one thirty-minute meal break during the course of an eight-hour day.
under state law, an employee need not be paid for a meal break if the employee is completely relieved of duty for 30 uninterrupted minutes. in addition, some hospitals have entered into collective bargaining agreements with the washington nurses association, representing over 15,000 registered nurses, which provide for longer rest breaks or require that employees receive pay for meal breaks.
in the lawsuits, the union alleges that registered nurses regularly worked through their legally required meal and/or rest breaks and were not compensated for the missed rest breaks, or were not compensated for the time worked during meal periods. the complaints further assert that time worked during breaks, when added to the nurses' regular working time, often resulted in nurses working more than 40 hours in a given workweek, and that the nurses were not compensated for this alleged overtime. the lawsuit seeks back wages, including unpaid overtime, for time worked during meal and rest periods within the past three years...
posted by [color=#983222]littler mendelson on august 09, 2010
what started as a flurry of class actions against hospitals by a single law firm in the northeast has now snowballed, with new cases being filed continuously by different firms across the country. in just the last month or so, four such class actions were filed against hospital systems in tennessee, illinois, and florida. each of the cases allege that the hospital systems violated the fair labor standards act (flsa) by automatically deducting a 30-minute meal break from employees' pay although the employees regularly work during the unpaid meal period.
took me 2 hrs to do payroll christmas eve to make sure that everyone who worked through lunch had automatic deduction removed from pay and fmla recorded along with all the holiday time recorded....just to prevent from being involved in such a suit.
