On December 1, 2011, the United States Department of Labor (“DOL”) announced that it will be conducting an “enforcement initiative” focused on the residential care industry in North Carolina. The residential care industry consists of group homes, long term care facilities, and other businesses that provide care for individuals who are incapable of caring for themselves.
As part of the initiative, the DOL plans on visiting residential care facilities to interview employees and review their pay practices and records. The DOL stated that that since 2006, it has investigated 120 residential care facilities and recovered more than $980,6000 in back pay for 1,077 employees.
According to the DOL, businesses in the residential care industry have, among other violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act, failed to pay workers for attending required staff meetings and training. This practice contradicts the general rule that time spent attending employer sponsored meetings and training is compensable. Additionally, the DOL claims that residential care employers have consistently deducted 8 hour sleeping periods for employees who work fewer than 24 hours. The federal regulations are clear that an employee who is on duty for less than a 24 hour period must be paid for all of his or her time, including sleeping time.
Another area of concern not specifically addressed in the press release is whether such facilities, as is often standard practice, automatically deduct a set period of time for lunch periods (e.g. 30 minutes or an hour). In such instances, employees have successfully filed complaints that they worked through these automatically deducted lunch periods and are entitled to compensation.
Employers in the residential care industry should review their pay practices in anticipation of heightened scrutiny by the DOL. In particular, businesses within this industry need to carefully examine whether they are paying employees for all time worked in a given day.