The Labor Department continues to pressure the sensitive healthcare industry, ramping up investigations of wage violations among hospitals and nursing homes. We’ve warned of this trend in earlier posts. Such pressure is another weapon in Big Labor’s arsenal to attempt to wrestle neutrality agreements from healthcare employers. As one labor law blog sums up:
The explosion of wage and hour actions against healthcare employers is due in large part because it is one segment of the economy that is growing and expanding its workforce, especially now with the enactment of health reform. Plaintiffs’ attorneys are also becoming much more aggressive in their efforts to target vulnerable employers. No longer waiting for a disgruntled employee to make a complaint, plaintiffs’ attorneys are using the ease of the internet to identify potential class members and highlight their investigations against susceptible hospitals and healthcare providers. In response to the renewed attention by the government and plaintiffs’ counsel, all healthcare employers must be on alert and understand that they are increasingly the focus for a government investigation or a class action lawsuit.
One hospital system in St. Louis has had to cough up $1.7 million. A Boston system agreed to pay $2.7 million, and even though a large California system denied any wrongdoing, it agreed to a $7.25 million settlement. The threat of such action is a very large club indeed.
