Aspirus Wausau Hospital Unpaid Meal Break Lawsuit Investigation: Nurses Underpaid?

Attorneys working with ClassAction.org are looking into whether Aspirus Wausau Hospital violated labor laws by failing to pay nurses for time spent working through meal breaks—and whether a lawsuit can be filed on their behalf.

Specifically, the attorneys believe nurses and other patient care workers may not have been paid for all their hours worked due to the Wausau, Wisconsin hospital’s suspected practice of automatically deducting 30 minutes from their hours for meal breaks even when they worked through their breaks. The federal Fair Labor Standards Act mandates that most employees be paid at least the minimum wage for all hours worked and time-and-a-half overtime wages for all hours worked in excess of 40 each week.

A lawsuit against Aspirus Wausau Hospital may be able to help nurses and patient care workers recover any unpaid wages they may be owed.

Why Might Nurses Be Owed Unpaid Wages?

Under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), bona fide meal breaks of at least 30 minutes do not count as worktime and are unpaid. During an unpaid meal break, however, the employee must be “completely relieved from duty,” meaning they cannot be required to perform any tasks while on their meal break. If an employee works during their break, they must be paid for their time worked. Similarly, Wisconsin labor laws require that employers must pay employees for all “on duty” meal periods, i.e., when a worker is not provided with 30 minutes free from work.

The FLSA also requires employers to keep accurate records of employees’ hours worked, including any time they spend working during automatically deducted breaks.

Lawsuits Filed Over Unpaid Meal Breaks

Many employers have faced class action lawsuits filed by employees who claimed to have worked during automatically deducted breaks without being paid.

For instance, a lawsuit filed against a children’s hospital in September 2022 claimed that 30-minute meal breaks were automatically deducted from employees’ hours even though they were often “too busy with work” to take full, uninterrupted breaks. The plaintiff, who worked at the hospital as a phlebotomist, said there was no policy or procedure to record missed, shortened or interrupted meal breaks, causing many hospital employees to be underpaid, including for overtime hours.

A Tennessee hospital operator was also hit with several lawsuits alleging its employees were unlawfully docked 30 minutes’ worth of pay for breaks they were “rarely” able to take. According to the lawsuits, hospital workers were required to remain on duty even during breaks and were expected to always be available to respond to patients’ needs. The cases argued that the defendants violated federal and state labor laws by failing to compensate employees for every hour worked.

How Could a Lawsuit Against Aspirus Help?

If filed and successful, a lawsuit could help nurses and other patient care workers recover unpaid wages they may be owed for working through meal breaks. It could also force the hospital to change its pay practices and ensure that employees are properly compensated for all hours worked.

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