A Seattle jury has determined that Windfall underpaid greater than 33,000 of its workers by willfully denying them breaks and rounding down their time on the clock.
The category-action grievance was filed in 2021 on behalf of Windfall nurses, technicians and different hourly workers. The case’s eight-day trial concluded final week, with a county choose ordering the well being system to pay greater than $200 million.
“It’s not on a regular basis you see a judgment in extra of $200 million towards a healthcare firm for unpaid wages,” Jason Rittereiser, an legal professional who represented Windfall’s workers, mentioned in an interview. “I feel that sends a message to healthcare companies — not simply in Washington, however throughout the nation — that in the event that they fail to pay their workers, they are going to be held accountable.”
The grievance alleged that Windfall used a coverage — which was discontinued final October — that may pay hourly workers based mostly on the time they work rounded to the closest 15-minute increment. The well being system additionally had insurance policies in place to “discourage hourly workers from punching in additional than seven minutes early for his or her shift, from punching in after the scheduled begin of their shift, or punching out greater than seven minutes after the tip of their shift or shortly earlier than the tip of their shift,” in response to the grievance.
Primarily, these insurance policies prevented or discouraged employees from punching the clock in a manner that rounding may gain advantage them — due to this fact which means that workers’ working hours have been constantly getting rounded down with out the prospect of ever night out — the grievance defined.
This coverage was in place although Windfall, like many employers, was utilizing a digital clock to trace its workers’ working hours “right down to the second,” Rittereiser mentioned.
The grievance additionally alleged that Windfall systematically failed to offer a second meal break for hourly workers who have been entitled to 1. Per Washington state legislation, employers are required to make sure employees members get two 30-minute, duty-free meal breaks after they work a shift that’s 10.5 hours or longer. Windfall didn’t present these second meal breaks to workers, but the well being system mechanically deducted these breaks that employees ought to have acquired from their paychecks, in response to the grievance.
“These are systemic wage violations that occurred on a small scale every day for years. Finally, that provides as much as be hundreds of thousands and hundreds of thousands of {dollars}. A single wage violation on behalf of a person worker may go unnoticed — however the results of this trial speaks to the large, systemic measurement of those wage violations,” Rittereiser defined.
Damages for Windfall workers’ unpaid wages totaled about $98 million, however Windfall is being ordered to pay way more than that. Beneath Washington state legislation, employers should pay double the quantity of damages if a choose determines that they made the willful option to withhold wages — and King County Superior Court docket Choose Averil Rothrock did simply that.
With statutory curiosity, Windfall should pay a complete nearer to $220 million, Rittereiser mentioned.
In an announcement shared with MedCity Information, a Windfall spokesperson wrote that the well being system values its workers and “stays dedicated to offering them complete, aggressive pay and advantages, and to creating certain they’re accurately compensated for time labored.”
The spokesperson additionally wrote that Windfall disagrees with the plaintiffs’ claims that some Windfall hospitals in Washington failed to offer acceptable compensation to employees.
“This case introduced a number of new and complicated wage and hour points that aren’t addressed in Washington statutes or by the Washington Courts of Attraction. Together with different employers additionally looking for readability on these Washington wage and hour points, we intend to enchantment this end result,” the spokesperson’s assertion learn.
Photograph: zimmytws, Getty Pictures
