Total Articles: 12
DOL Targets Home Health Care Provider for Payment of Flat Daily Rates
In one of many recent Department of Labor (DOL) enforcement actions against the home health care industry, a federal court entered a consent decree ordering Aspen Nursing Services Inc. to pay $210,000 in back pay and liquidated damages to 22 employees. Aspen provides home health aides for individuals with disabilities in Kentucky and Ohio.
Clock Now Ticking On "Companionship", Live-In Domestic Restrictions December 31, 2011 02:52
The U.S. Labor Department has officially published the proposed provisions that would drastically limit the federal Fair Labor Standards Act's exemptions for "companionship" workers and live-in domestic employees. As we have reported, adopting these proposals in their current form will mean that the proportion of such companions and domestic-service workers who are exempt from that law's minimum-wage and/or overtime requirements will be far smaller than it is today.
U.S. Dept of Labor to Cut Overtime Exemption for Home Caregiver Agencies
The Fair Labor Standards Act exempts from minimum wage and overtime law:
New Protections Proposed for Domestic Caregivers Under FLSA
The Department of Labor’s (DOL) Wage and Hour Division recently announced proposed rules to expand minimum wage and overtime protections for domestic caregivers under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). The new rules propose to limit the types of work exempt from FLSA wage requirements, increase record keeping requirements for certain domestic workers, and clarify that companionship exemptions are limited to individuals employed by the family or household using the services.
U.S. Department of Labor Does an About-Face on Overtime and Minimum Pay Rates for Home Care Workers Employed By Third Party Agencies
Executive Summary: On Thursday, December 15, 2011, the U.S. Department of Labor ("DOL"), announced plans to revise the companionship exemption under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act ("FLSA"). The revisions would significantly change the way many home care agencies currently do business, exposing them to liability for overtime at one and one-half the worker's "regular rate of pay," and claims for failure to pay wages for all hours worked (including intra-day travel time, duty free meal time when work is performed, etc.) at the federal minimum wage rate.
Regulation Proposed to Limit FLSA's "Companionship" Exemption
As we suspected, efforts to eviscerate the federal Fair Labor Standards Act's Section 13(a)(15) "companionship" exemption have now formally moved to the regulatory arena. The U.S. Labor Department has proposed a regulation that would limit the exemption to a far-narrower segment of those employees who work as in-home caregivers. This move no doubt reflects a political judgment that legislative measures to amend the FLSA itself (about which we wrote in June) would not emerge from Congress.
DOL Limits Exemption for Home Care Workers
On December 15, 2011, the United States Department of Labor announced a proposed rule that would narrowly interpret the current exemption from minimum wage and overtime requirements for certain home care workers. Specifically, the proposed rule will clarify that the minimum wage and overtime exemption only applies to employees providing "companionship services." "Companionship services" are, in turn, defined as "fellowship and protection for a person who, because of advanced age or physical or mental infirmity, is unable to care for themselves." Under the current exemption, employees can engage in unlimited personal care services such as meal preparation, bed making, washing of clothes, and other similar services. Under the proposed regulation, an employee may not spend more than 20% of their time providing "incidental services", including dressing, grooming, toileting, driving to appointments, feeding, laundry, and bathing. This will cause most home health employees to fall outside of the exemption, causing their employers to be required to pay overtime and minimum wage.
DOL Proposes to Extend Minimum Wage, Overtime Requirements to In-Home Care Workers
On December 15, 2011, the Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division (WHD) issued its much-anticipated proposed rule (pdf) that could make more than a million domestic caregivers eligible to receive minimum wage and overtime pay under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).
Overtime for Home Care Workers: On the Horizon?
Home care workers are currently exempt from overtime under federal law. That exemption faces significant new challenges from proposed legislation and administrative rulemaking which, if successful, will require third party employers and home health care agencies to pay overtime to home care workers.
FLSA's "Companionship" Exemption In Peril.
If a recently proposed amendment becomes law, the federal Fair Labor Standards Act's Section 13(a)(15) exemption for certain "companionship" employees will essentially be eliminated.
Overtime Issue for Home Care Workers is Alive as Senators Press to Have US DOL Regulations Altered or Reinterpreted.
What Happened Two Years Ago... In Long Island Care at Home, Ltd. v. Coke, 549 U.S. 1105 (June 11, 2007), the Supreme Court deferred to the U.S. Department of Labor's interpretation of its own regulations and unanimously held that home care workers employed by third party employers or agencies were exempt from overtime under the "companionship exemption" to the Fair Labor Standards Act. Coupled with the overtime exemption available to non-profit agencies in New York (where Medicaid funded home care can be 24/7) who had timely filed a Statement of Non-Profitmaking Institutions with the NYS Department of Labor, this fully exempted those agencies, in particular, from overtime pay to home care workers.
Supreme Court Upholds Companionship Exemption.
Third party home care providers breathed a collective sigh of relief yesterday when the United States Supreme Court reversed a ruling out of the Second Circuit Court of Appeals which held that the companionship exemption from the Fair Labor Standard Act's (FLSA) overtime requirements was not valid and binding as it related to third party providers of temporary home care services.
