Former Supervisor Sues Crothall Healthcare Over Allegedly Unpaid Overtime Wages

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A proposed collective action has been filed against Crothall Healthcare Inc. and a manager by a woman who claims she and other supervisors were misclassified as exempt from overtime pay despite being required to perform “primarily janitorial work.”

The defendants, which provide housekeeping and janitorial services to hospitals, allegedly instructed the plaintiff and similarly situated workers to perform their supervisory duties outside of their regular work hours “because there were not enough housekeepers.” As a result, the lawsuit says, the plaintiff and similarly situated employees performed mostly manual housekeeping duties during their shifts and frequently put in more than 40 hours per week to make up for the defendants’ understaffing.

According to the case, the defendants failed to keep track of employees’ overtime hours and refused to pay them time-and-a-half wages for such due to the workers’ allegedly improper classification as exempt supervisors. Moreover, supervisors were assigned a “lunch” hour that was “rarely given” because of the amount of work they were required to perform, the suit continues.

The lawsuit claims that when employees began complaining about the defendants’ alleged labor law violations, the manager defendant “began a campaign of harassment intended to pressure them into quitting their job.” According to the case, the man was frequently heard telling supervisors “[i]f someone here doesn’t do their job, then you do it. This is why we pay you, to make sure that it is done and if you can’t do it then that’s another conversation we can have in my office, I can find someone else to get it done!”

The plaintiff was supposedly terminated in retaliation for complaining about unpaid overtime.

Originally filed in state court, the lawsuit has recently been removed to the District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi.