News Release
Court orders Minnesota provider to pay $483K in back wages, damages to 82 home healthcare employees denied overtime pay
GOLDEN VALLEY, MN – Low-wage workers often do much of the essential work in our communities, and women, immigrants and people of color often hold those jobs. The healthcare industry employs many of the nation’s low-wage workers, which underscores the importance of a federal court action and a U.S. Department of Labor Wage and Hour Division investigation related to a Golden Valley home healthcare provider.
On Aug. 5, 2021, U.S. District Court Judge Wilhelmina M. Wright for the District of Minnesota approved a settlement agreement between the department and Alliance HHC & Nursing Service LLC to resolve Fair Labor Standards Act violations the department found in an investigation. The agreement requires Alliance to pay $241,582 in back wages and $241,582 in liquidated damages to 82 home healthcare workers it employs.
The investigation determined Alliance HHC & Nursing Service LLC and its owner Robin Nyangena failed to pay workers overtime when they worked more than 40 hours in a workweek, as the law requires. Instead, the employer continued to pay workers straight-time rates, regardless of the number of hours they worked each week. The home healthcare workers provide skilled nursing, private duty, personal aide and therapy services.
“The essential care that home healthcare workers provide helps their clients maintain their dignity and remain in their homes,” said Acting Wage and Hour Division District Director Kristin Tout in Minneapolis. “The Wage and Hour Division is committed to ensuring essential employees receive every dollar of their hard-earned wages and that employers abide by the federal wage laws. Other employers should use the outcome of this investigation as an opportunity to review their own pay practices to ensure they comply with the law.”
The division recently launched the Essential Workers, Essential Protections initiative to ensure that workers know about the workplace laws that protect them – and how to contact the division to get the help they need.
Learn more about wage rules for healthcare workers.
For more information about the FLSA and other laws enforced by the division, contact the agency’s toll-free helpline at 866-4US-WAGE (487-9243). Learn more about the Wage and Hour Division and use its search tool if you think you may be owed back wages collected by the division.
COURT NO: Walsh v. Alliance HHC & Nursing Service LLC, Robin Nyangena
