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October 31, 2022
A unit owner of a life insurance company was awarded more than $1 million in a private contract case. The Minnesota Attorney General is suing Shipt for the IC error. The health workers company VDA OC is accused of suppressing the wages of school nurses.
Assisted living provider
The co-owner and operator of an assisted living provider in Pittsburgh paid more than $1 million in back wages and liquidated damages to 47 employees, the U.S. Department of Labor said under when the agreement was reached on October 27.
Part-owner and operator, Kelley Oliver-Hollis of Serenitycare LLC – doing business as Serenitycare – owns six homes and one practice facility in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania.
According to the agency, Oliver-Hollis misrepresented direct care workers and direct care supervisors as independent contractors, took sick leave from both employees’ final paychecks, and reduced their earnings to less than the $7.25 required by the state for the hourly minimum wage, and they are not properly classified as wages. freed from working hours.
He paid workers on time for scheduled hours, not actual hours worked.
In addition, the employer paid for overtime hours in cash, and wages were not recorded, forcing some workers to become independent contractors in order not to pay them overtime, and not keeping accurate totals of daily and weekly work hours.
The investigation also revealed that Oliver-Hollis asked some employees to write letters protesting back pay and falsely claimed they had chosen a private contractor to receive the money.
Oliver-Hollis has paid the agency $1.05 million as part of its recovery for affected employees, and a $44,741 civil penalty for violating the Fair Labor Standards Act.
The court’s decision barred Oliver-Hollis from violating the FLSA in the future.
Serenitycare provides quality care services to patients, including patients with mental disabilities.
The Minnesota lawsuit
The Minnesota Attorney General sued Shipt, a food delivery platform, over its classification of workers as independent contractors.
The announcement comes alongside the District of Columbia’s investigation into the Birmingham, Alabama stadium.
Both lawsuits allege that the B2C employment services platform owned by Target classified its employees as independent contractors to avoid labor costs.
According to the lawsuit, while Shipt treats customers as independent contractors, the platform determines who is eligible to make purchases and controls whether or not customers have access to the products. Shipt monitors the activity of customers and ensures the quality of the goods ordered from its service, leaving no room for customers to benefit from their business and customer relationships. .
In addition, Shipt’s lawsuit alleges that it blocks the communication between buyers and sellers, and hides their numbers from each other while the sellers do their work.
“All Minnesota workers, especially those who matter to all of us during and after the worst days of Covid, must take home every dollar they legally earn – no “It’s different. But some companies are breaking the rules and the law by mistaking their workers as independent contractors, which means workers lose some of the most important protections of the law,” said the attorney. General Keith Ellison.
“I’m suing Shipt because, instead of playing by the rules that most Minnesota employers play by, Shipt is using Minnesotans to enrich itself and leave the workers behind. to work for themselves. Unlike other workers, these workers do not have a clear understanding of how much they will be paid each day, and they often do not receive the minimum wage and overtime. to them.”
Uniforms for healthcare workers
Medical staffing company VDA OC (formerly Advantage On Call) pleaded guilty to entering into and engaging with a competitor to distribute staff nurses and fix their wages, the Justice Department of America on Thursday.
The San Diego-based agency was the first to be accused of allegedly colluding to suppress the salaries of school nurses in 2021.
According to the agency, from October 2016 to July 2017, VDA, through one of its employees, was involved in the conspiracy, and was one of the first two providers of contract nursing services to the Clark County School District.
In addition, VDA was ordered to pay $62,000 in criminal fines and $72,000 in restitution to the nurses who were struck.
“Free and open labor markets are a cornerstone of the American dream,” said Assistant Attorney General Jonathan Kanter of the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division. “Today’s guilty plea demonstrates our commitment to ensuring that workers receive competitive wages and fair opportunities to pursue better careers, and that criminals are expected to to waive those rights and bear responsibility. The court order is to compensate the hardworking health workers affected by this scandal.
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