Connecticut substance abuse facility and parent companies ordered to pay more than $1 million in back wages to resolve U.S. Labor Department lawsuit

NORTH STONINGTON, Conn. — Stonington Behavioral Health Inc. in North Stonington, doing business as Stonington Institute, and Pennsylvania-based parent companies Universal Health Services Inc. and UHS of Delaware Inc. have been ordered to pay 143 employees more than $1 million in back wages to resolve a lawsuit filed by the U.S. Department of Labor alleging violations of the federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).

An investigation by the department's Wage and Hour Division district office in Hartford, Conn., revealed that full-time employees who worked with substance abuse patients living in the company's sober houses routinely worked unpaid, unrecorded hours and were thereby paid less than the mandatory federal minimum and overtime wages.

"Among this department's highest priorities is making sure that workers are paid all the wages they have earned," said U.S. Secretary of Labor Elaine L. Chao. "In this case we have recovered more than $1 million in back wages for 143 employees."

The FLSA requires that covered employees be paid at least the federal minimum wage as well as one and one-half times their regular rates of pay for hours worked more than 40 per week. The law also requires that accurate records of employees' wages, hours and other conditions of employment be maintained.

The department's suit was filed in March by the Labor Department's Regional Solicitor's Office in Boston in the U.S. District Court for the District of Connecticut. The defendants have now agreed, without admitting liability, to the entry of a consent judgment resolving the matter. The judgment, signed by Judge Janet Bond Arterton, prohibits the defendants from future violations of the FLSA's minimum wage, overtime and recordkeeping provisions.

The defendants are also ordered to pay a total of $1,075,218 in back wages, which cover the period between July 1, 2004, and July 1, 2006. The back wage payments must be made no later than Sept. 5, 2007. In addition, the defendants have paid $49,156 in civil monetary penalties.

For more information about the FLSA, call the Department of Labor's toll-free help line at (866) 4US-WAGE (487-9243). Information is also available on the Internet at www.wagehour.dol.gov and through an interactive "e-laws advisor" at www.dol.gov/elaws/flsa.htm.

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Chao v. Universal Health Services Inc., et al; Civil Action Number: 3:07-CV-00400-JBA

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