Ex-Workers Claim Pennsylvania Home Care Company Reduced Wages to Cut Down Overtime Pay

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Red Lion Home Care, Inc. faces a proposed class action wherein two former employees claim their regular pay rates were reduced in weeks when they worked overtime, which in turn unlawfully lowered their time-and-a-half rates.

According to the case out of the Philadelphia County Court of Common Pleas, Red Lion Home Care “possesses a company-wide practice of seeking to avoid the financial consequences” of paying caregivers proper overtime wages in accordance with Pennsylvania law for every hour they work in excess of 40 each week.

In their positions as caregivers, the plaintiffs were responsible for providing home care and companionship services to the defendant’s clients throughout Eastern Pennsylvania, the suit says. Per the case, Red Lion Home Care promised to pay the plaintiffs at an hourly rate of $13.00 in addition to overtime premiums when they worked more than 40 hours in a week. According to the suit, however, the defendant failed to pay the plaintiffs at their correct hourly rate—and thus, their correct time-and-a-half overtime rate—during weeks in which they accrued overtime.

“Instead, Defendant only paid [one of the plaintiffs] an hourly rate of $11.12/hr. and $10.95/hr. for the first 40 hours she was credited with working those weeks, and then a rate of $16.68/hr. and $16.42/hr. for her overtime hours,” the complaint states. “Under the [Pennsylvania Minimum Wage Act], Defendant was required to pay [the plaintiff] $13.00/hr. for all time worked up to 40 hours in those weeks and $19.50/hr. for her overtime work.”

The lawsuit claims the defendant’s overtime policy represents “a willful and reckless disregard” of Pennsylvania state labor laws.

The plaintiffs look to represent anyone who worked for the defendant in Pennsylvania as a caregiver within the past three years.

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