A nurse filed a class-action lawsuit against Ohio State Physicians, Inc. Wednesday for failure to pay employees for overtime hours. Credit: Mackenzie Shanklin | Photo Editor
A nurse is suing Ohio State Physicians, Inc. for violating labor and wage laws, according to a class-action lawsuit filed in the Southern District Court of Ohio Wednesday.
Alice Daniels, the plaintiff, claimed Ohio State Physicians, Inc. failed to pay her and other eligible employees overtime wages, despite consistently working more than 40 hours per week. She also said mandatory unpaid lunch breaks were often cut short or interrupted with work responsibilities.
Ohio State Physicians, Inc. is a not-for-profit outpatient care system with about 30 offices and clinics throughout central Ohio, according to its website. It is part of the Ohio State College of Medicine’s practice plan as designated by the Board of Trustees.
Daniels has worked as a licensed practical nurse for the outpatient care system since October 2019. During her time, she claims Ohio State Physicians, Inc.’s policies violated multiple labor laws, including the Federal Labor Standards Act.
Specifically, the lawsuit states Daniels and other nurses — including licensed practical nurses, registered nurses and nurse practitioners — were expected to arrive at work 15 to 30 minutes before their scheduled shifts to “engage in work duties that are integral and indispensable to their job duties prior to clocking in.” Such duties included turning on computers, checking messages and fax machines, and reviewing prescription refill requests, according to the lawsuit.
Despite starting work early, employees could not clock in more than four minutes before their scheduled shift. Consequently, the lawsuit states, employees were not paid for required work.
A university spokesperson said the university does not comment on pending lawsuits.
In addition to expecting employees to work before their shifts began, the lawsuit claims managers required some employees, including nurses, to clock out for one-hour meal breaks while still requiring them to perform work duties. In several instances, Daniels claims managers instructed her to take extended breaks off-the-clock.
“While off-the-clock they were still required to have ‘lunch meetings’ with their manager, stay at the facility to receive a provider’s call, and assist other employees and patients because [the outpatient care system] was understaffed,” the lawsuit states.
Daniels claimed she was reprimanded for not answering the phone during her meal break and other employees “regularly do not take a full, uninterrupted 60-minute meal break.”
The lawsuit states that under federal and state labor laws, Ohio State Physicians, Inc. is required to pay Daniels and other hourly, non-exempt health care employees time-and-a-half for all hours worked beyond 40. With work duties expected to be done before work and during mandatory breaks, Daniels claims the hospital system knowingly and willfully withheld wages and, because of its company-wide policies, does not have appropriate and required records of the uncompensated labor.
Daniels filed the class-action lawsuit on behalf of all former and current hourly, non-exempt hospital system employees who “were scheduled to work 40 or more hours in any workweek” in the past two years. Class-action lawsuits are civil suits made up of multiple plaintiffs seeking relief against the same person or organization.
At the time of publication, Tiffany Malizia and Julie Henderson joined Daniels as opt-in plaintiffs. Malizia worked for the outpatient care system from October 2019 to November 2020, and Henderson worked for the system from July 2019 to January 2020, according to the lawsuit.
Daniels seeks compensation for unpaid labor and overtime wages, compensation for legal fees, and damages in the amount of $200 per violation or six percent of all unpaid overtime compensation, according to the lawsuit. Daniels also seeks an injunction against the hospital system to ensure no further labor act violations occur.
