Class/Collective Action Alleges Piramal Critical Care, Masis Staffing Altered Employees’ Work Hours

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Piramal Critical Care and Masis Staffing Solutions are the defendants in a proposed class and collective action in which a former employee alleges workers’ clock-in and clock-out times were altered to discount time spent putting on and removing mandatory safety equipment.

According to the complaint, Piramal is the third-largest producer of inhaled anesthetics and contracts with Masis Staffing to bring on temporary workers at its Bethlehem, Pennsylvania facility. The plaintiff, who worked for Piramal as a production operator from April through July 2018, alleges he regularly worked upward of 40 hours per week yet received no time-and-a-half overtime pay.

The suit links the allegedly unpaid wages to time spent by the plaintiff and similarly situated workers donning and doffing mandatory safety gear, such as work boots, nitrile gloves, safety glasses and a respirator. This pre- and post-shift work time, amounting to about 30 minutes per day, was allegedly removed by the defendants from workers’ time records. Moreover, the suit claims the plaintiff was instructed by Piramal to forego his unpaid meal breaks due to other workers being unavailable to cover his station while he was on break. Even though the plaintiff never took a meal break on most days, the lawsuit says, Piramal automatically deducted 30 minutes for meal time from the plaintiff’s daily work hours.