Indian American employer ordered to pay $69,000 overtime
Amee Patel failed to pay 45 managers in full across three Michigan nursing homes
Amee Patel, Indian American owner and operator of three Michigan nursing homes, has been ordered to pay 45 employees $69,022 in back pay and damages after a federal investigation by the Labor department.
The department’s Wage and Hour Division recovered the amount owed to managers at Beaconshire Nursing Center and Westwood Nursing Center in Detroit and Chesaning Nursing Center in Chesaning, according to a press release.
Read: Indian American doctor pays $1,850,000 for healthcare fraud (January 10, 2023)
Patel, the release stated failed to pay 45 managers in full across the three skilled nursing facilities. In an attempt to avoid overtime payment obligations, he regularly alternated paying managers by the hour and paying them on salaries. Employees were paid hourly wages when they worked less than 40 hours per week but paid a salary when they worked more.
“Business operators cannot casually decide to pay workers as salaried in some weeks and hourly in others. By doing so, Amee Patel clearly violated federal laws by denying workers at her health care facilities all their hard-earned pay,” said Timolin Mitchell, Wage and Hour Division District director in the release.
“Caregivers employed in the residential care industry provide our family members and neighbors with vital support, therapy and daily living assistance. The owner of these Detroit area nursing centers put her bottom line before the needs of health care workers, making it more difficult for them to care for themselves and their families.”
“By regularly alternating the managers’ status from hourly to salary, Patel voided their claim that the managers wereovertime exempt,” the release said.
Twelve employees at the Beaconshire Nursing Center were granted $17,173 in back wages, $14,205 in back wages were recovered for 21 employees at the Westwood Nursing Center and $3,133 was recovered for 12 employees at the Chesaning Nursing Center, according to the Department of Labor.
The employer paid liquidated damages in the amount equal to the pay the managers should have received, effectively doubling the back pay for unpaid overtime, the department said.
Each of the three nursing facilities is privately owned and for-profit, according to data from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
Read: Indian-American employer ordered to pay $69K overtime (February 10, 2023)
It wasn’t the first time Patel violated overtime payment regulations. In 2018, the nursing home operator failed to completely pay drivers for travel and wait times, and in 2015 employees were not paid for attending mandatory trainings, the release stated.
Patel paid the Department of Labor $7,938 in penalties for repeated violations of federal wage laws.
In 2022, the Detroit district office of the Department’s Wage and Hour Division recovered almost $2.2 million in back wages and liquated damages, $500,000 of which was owed to health care workers, according to the release.
