Last week, a federal judge in Nashville, Tennessee granted preliminary approval of a $3 million dollar settlement in the overtime rights class/collective action styled Carroll v. Guardian Home Care Holdings, Inc., 3:14-cv-01722. Our firm and the Nashville firm of Barrett Johnston Martin & Garrison LLC represent a class of visiting nurses who allege that they did not receive any extra overtime pay when they worked over 40 hours per week. Here is link to a recent newspaper article about the settlement: Nashville Tennessean Article
The lawsuit addresses whether visiting nurses paid a “fee-per-visit” basis are entitled to extra overtime pay for hours worked over 40 per week. The nurses argued that extra overtime pay is required because a portion of their weekly pay was based on the amount of time they spent performing certain types of work, such as, for example, attending weekly staff meetings. Plaintiffs argued that, under the federal overtime regulations, visiting nurses cannot be considered “exempt” from receiving overtime if any portion of their pay is based on the time it takes to perform certain tasks.”
Our firm is very interested in protecting the overtime rights of visiting nurses and, as indicated by the above settlement, we have has great success handling such cases. Please call if you are a visiting nurse who has not been paid overtime by your current or former employer.