US Labor Department alleges medical office owners retaliated against workers

NEW YORK – The U.S. Department of Labor has filed an injunction against the owners of two medical offices in Brooklyn to prevent further retaliation against employees who refused to provide false information to obstruct the department’s investigation into alleged violations of the federal Fair Labor Standards Act.

In a complaint filed June 30, 2017, the department alleges that almost immediately after the department’s Wage and Hour Division notified Neurological Care P.C. of its overtime and record keeping violations, the employer demanded that employees submit false written statements to investigators in which they were to state they had been paid legally. When two employees refused to do so, the employer demoted them and slashed their work hours in retaliation. 

Specifically, the complaint alleges the employer:

• Instructed employees to provide false information to investigators.
• Retaliated against employees who refused to provide false information to investigators, demoting the general manager and a medical technician to receptionist jobs, reducing their hours of work, and singling them out for disproportionate discipline and other hostile treatment at work.
• Paid approximately 41 employees only for their scheduled hours of work, and generally refused to compensate employees for hours worked over 40 when many employees worked approximately 45 hours per week or more.
• Advised employees that the company had an office policy of not paying overtime.
• Failed to pay employees for working during apparent lunch breaks.
• Regularly required employees to work substantial hours before and after the office closed to the public without compensation.
• Created handwritten records that generally recorded only the weekly scheduled hours worked (rather than the actual hours worked) for each employee.
• When the employer did record hours employees worked beyond 40 scheduled hours in a week, the employer paid employees for those hours only at their straight time rates, rather than paying them overtime premium pay.

The defendants have since agreed by stipulation to the provisions set forth in the injunction, which the court ordered to prevent further retaliation or intimidation.

“The Wage and Hour Division will utilize all tools under the Fair Labor Standards Act to prevent employer retaliation and to ensure that employees can exercise their legal rights free from intimidation,” said David An, district director of the division’s New York City District Office. “Such an environment not only protects workers but also helps to level the playing field for employers who play by the rules.”

“Employers cannot expect to mislead the government with impunity,” said Jeffrey S. Rogoff, regional solicitor New York Regional Office. “When an employer engages in egregious retaliatory conduct, we will use every mechanism at our disposal, including litigation, to protect workers and safeguard the integrity of the government’s investigatory process.”

Senior  trial attorneys Elena S. Goldstein and Daniel Hennefeld of the department’s New York Regional Solicitor’s Office are litigating the case for the department.

The FLSA requires that employees receive one-and-one-half their regular rates of pay when they work more than 40 hours in a workweek and that employers maintain adequate and accurate records of employees’ wages and work hours. It is a violation of the FSLA for any person to discharge or in any other manner discriminate against any employee because he or she has filed a complaint or cooperated in an investigation. See Retaliation Fact Sheet.

The division is committed to providing employers with the tools they need to understand and comply with the variety of labor laws the division enforces. It offers useful resources ranging from an interactive E-laws advisor to a complete library of free, downloadable workplace posters. In addition, the division’s Community Outreach and Resource Planning Specialists conduct ongoing outreach activities to educate stakeholders, including employers, employees, business and labor groups and professional associations, among others, with accessible, easy-to-understand information about their rights and responsibilities.

For more information about the FLSA, contact the division’s toll-free helpline at 866-4US-WAGE (487-9243) or its New York City District Office at 212-264-8185. Information also is available at http://www.dol.gov/whd.