Hospital workers for Aurora Health Care Inc. have settled their class action lawsuit alleging owed wages under the Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”). The nearly $9 million payout will resolve claims that the medical service provider failed to pay its hourly employees for regular hours as well as overtime pay. The Aurora Health Care system employs individuals in 16 hospitals, 70 pharmacies and over 150 clinics in eastern Wisconsin and northern Illinois. Affected employees include hourly workersthat were employed by Aurora Health Care locations inWisconsin between August 14, 2017 and December 31, 2021.
The lawsuit, which was filed in August of 2020, alleged that hospital workers were detrimentally affected by Aurora’s time keeping policies and practices. The wage and hour policy had programmed their time-keeping system, Kronos, to round itshourly employees’ clock in and clock out times within seven minutes to the bottom or top of each hour to the advantage of the company. For example, if an hourly employee was scheduled to start work at 9:00 A.M. but clocked in and started working at 8:55 a.m., those five minutes were rounded down and went unpaid. Similarly, if an hourly employee was scheduled until5:00 P.M. but worked until 5:07 P.M. and clocked out then, they also went unpaid for that time. These time clock rounding policies and practices violate the FLSA and local Wisconsin laws result in the underpayment of overtime wages.
Completing unpaid off-the-clock work is unfortunately extremely common in the medical industry for hospital workers as well as others that require more labor intensive roles such as the restaurant and construction industry. Any work completed before or after shifts start as well as during break times should be compensable. If you have any questions regarding your pay, give our firm, Fitapelli & Schaffer, LLP, a call for a free and confidential consultation at (212)300-0375. You can also visit our website here for additional helpful information regarding your employment rights.