Tennessee Employment Lawyer Blog

In recent qui tam law news, more health care providers have agreed to return moneys and pay fines for allegedly inappropriately billing Uncle Sam. U.S. taxpayers have the brave employees who blew the whistle and filed qui tam lawsuits against their employers to thank for reporting this corporate misconduct. In previous Tennessee Qui Tam Law Blogs, we have covered pharmaceutical companies that fraudulently bill the government health care programs and medical institutions charging Medicare for unnecessary medications.

In one lawsuit initiated by whistleblower employees settled earlier this week, kickbacks using Medicare and Medicaid moneys were alleged by federal prosecutors in the False Claims lawsuit. Christiana Care Health System agreed to pay the United States and Delaware a combined $3.3M to resolve allegations of paying kickbacks to a Delaware neurology firm. In another qui tam lawsuit, a $14M settlement was reached between Feds and two Atlanta-based nursing home chains accused of kicking patients over to a Kentucky-based pharmaceutical firm.

Continue reading "Hospital Kickbacks Basis of Settled False Claims Lawsuits" »

A study released earlier this week looking into Tennessee construction worker wages found that one in five construction workers was either misclassified as an independent contractor or paid under the table since 2006. The study was presented to Tennessee committee on House Consumer and Employee Affairs this Wednesday.

The study was based on state and federal agency data and conducted by professors at Middle Tennessee State University and Tennessee Tech. It concluded that 38,680 Tennessee workers were misclassified or paid under the table, which impacted the state by a nearly $15M loss in unemployment taxes and $92M to workers' compensation premiums. According to the study, those employers who don’t pay appropriate wages and associated employment costs poison the well for those honest employers who pay their premiums and follow federal and Tennessee employment law.

Continue reading "Prevailing Wage News
20% of TN Construction Workers Underpaid" »

A collective/class action case that was filed in Tennessee Federal Court on behalf of migrant farm workers has been settled. Although the settlement still must be approved by the Court, the defendant has agreed to pay 2.75 million to more than 2,200 workers. The suit claimed that the workers were short changed their wages, including overtime pay. The defendant maintained their innocence in the settlement.

Hopefully, these type of cases send a message to all employers that employees must be treated fairly and that overtime is not an option. Overtime is the law and put simply it is both unethical and illegal to deny overtime to employees who have earned it.

As Tennessee Law Blog foresaw in the early months of last year in Tennessee Wage and Hour Cases on the Rise, wage-and-hour lawsuits have continued to explode across the county. In one report by a national employment law firm, non-government wage and hour settlements in 2009 grew 44% over 2008’s lawsuits.

Settlements for wage and hour lawsuits also increased in 2009. For those filed in federal court under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), lawsuit settlement amounts rose from $253 million in 2008 to $364 million in 2009 for the top 10 wage and hour cases of those years. The greatest growth in wage and hour lawsuits was along the coasts – California, Washington New Jersey, New York, Massachusetts – though the trend was upward in other states as well.

Continue reading "Wage and Hour Lawsuits Increase Nationwide" »

In a Tennessee sexual harassment retaliation case the Tennessee Law Blog has been following for greater than a year, a federal jury has awarded Nashville woman $1.5M in a retaliation lawsuit case. Vicky Crawford, a former employee of Nashville schools, claimed she suffered wrongful termination after she cooperated in a workplace sexual harassment investigation at Metro Schools.

(For previous Tennessee Law Blogs on this case, see our "Harrassment Retaliation Lawsuit from Nashville…” and, for an earlier report, "TN Sexual Harassment Suit before Supreme Court Expected to Expand Retaliation Protections for All Workers”).

After working over 30 years with Metro Schools, Crawford was fired from her Payroll Coordinator position in 2003. Subsequently, she suffered lost wages, future lost wages, and pension benefits, for which she filed her TN employment lawsuit. Originally, her case was dismissed by a federal judge since Crawford, herself, was not the subject of the sexual harassment investigation.

Then, in January 2009, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled for Crawford that sexual harassment retaliation protections extended to her for testifying in a sexual harassment investigation when she told investigators about sexual advances her coworker made, which are detailed in previous Tennessee Law Blogs. No action was taken against this male supervisor for these allegations. The same day the sexual harassment investigator’s report was filed, allegations were made by Metro Nashville that it was concerned about Crawford’s payroll department. In addition to Crawford’s termination, two other female employees who testified were fired.

The $1.5M award was for compensatory damages, back pay and future lost wages.

Continue reading "Sexual Harassment Retaliation Lawsuit against Metro - Update" »

Over the past year our office has pursued more overtime cases than ever before. I am not sure if people are just becoming more aware of their rights or if more employers are trying to increase profits by denying employees the overtime they have earned.

As most people know, if you are eligible for overtime you are entitled to be paid one and 1/2 times your normal pay rate for all time worked over 40 hours in one week. There are some common scams that we are seeing the employers use to avoid paying overtime. Here is one we see often:

Giving the employee an empty management title and paying a salary. Sometimes an employer will give an employee a bogus title such as manager or supervisor. This is done so the employer can pay a specific salary each week no matter how many hours are worked. To determine if this is a scam or legitimate it is important to look not at the title but what the work duties. In other words, if you are called a manager but do not have any management type powers you may be entitled to overtime pay. Common questions to ask are: Do you have the right to set schedules? Do you have the power to hire and fire? Do you supervise employees beneath you? If the answer is no then you may be entitled to back pay and overtime.

Continue reading "Tennessee Overtime Cases on the Rise" »

Outback Steak House is going to have to serve a whole lot of bloomin' onions to make up for the $19 million dollar settlement it agreed to pay in order to end a class action sexual discrimination lawsuit. The suit alleged a glass ceiling for female workers by requiring that all employees reaching the profit sharing managerial level have experience in the kitchen. The problem was female employees were consistently being denied any positions in the kitchen for then to gain the necessary experience. This has been hotly denied by OSI Partners, Outback's parent company.

Also part of the settlement is a consent decree that makes significant changes to OSI Partners promotion process including an online application that will allow employees to apply for managerial positions via the Internet. Human Resources will also get assistance in the form of a "Vice President for People". And just to make sure that all of this is actually happening, an outside consultant will be brought in for at least two years and every six months they will be reporting to the EEOC.

This is not the first time Outback has been called to task for treatment of its female employees. Over the years there have been thousands of complaints at hundreds of restaurants alleging discriminatory treatment of servers and managerial staff. In one instance they paid over $1.2 million to a woman who was fired only to find her position was filled by a man making twice her salary.

In a bit of an ironic twist, Flemings, a sister company to Outback, is facing its own lawsuit for sexual harassment. This one involves male workers. Obviously OSI Partners has some issues to address regarding their attitude toward employees. Not doing so has proved costly in the past. It could be devastating in the future.

Continue reading "Outback Settles $19M Sexual Discrimination Suit" »

A million dollar verdict was the only good thing to come of Carlotta Freeman's time at the Whirlpool plant in La Vergne, TN. This was the award from Federal judge John T. Nixon at the conclusion of her suit against the company for racial and sexual harassment.

Freeman claimed that Willie Baker, a white male co-worker, repeatedly made lewd and inappropriate comments and gestures in the plant and also in the break room. Her complaints to superiors largely fell on deaf ears. Despite assurances that something would be done, an investigation was never started and the supervisor never spoke with Baker. It was not until Freeman and another African-American woman, Chinica Lillard, complained about racial slurs to Kim Wheeler, a white female co-worker, that something finally started to happen. Unfortunately what happened was the supervisor advising the women to ignore Baker and suggesting Freeman just go ahead and have sex with Baker so he'd leave her alone.

The situation escalated to the point where Baker physically assaulted Freeman on the factory floor, pushing her into the moving assembly line causing her to be struck in the head by air conditioners moving down the line and throwing a steel valve at both Freeman and Lillard who had rescued Freeman from the moving line. Baker was fired for his part in the assault and Freeman returned the next day to take an open ended leave of absence. Freeman has subsequently been diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder from her experiences. She has become a reclusive introvert, rarely leaving her home as a result of her ordeal.

The court stated that Whirlpool essentially did nothing about the ongoing complaints lodged by Freeman against Baker. Nixon found that every level of management in the now defunct plant failed to protect Carlotta Freeman in her place of work.

Continue reading "Million Dollar Verdict in Whirlpool Harassment Case" »

A new class (or collective) action has been filed in Tennessee against a hospital for automatically deducting a lunch break from workers schedules. Apparently, the payroll system would deduct a specific period of time for lunch from the employee's pay even when the employee did not take lunch. This automatic payroll deduction would effect both regular pay and overtime received by employees.

In the age of automated systems and computers it is tempting and easy for employers to set up standard clock in and out procedures. Unfortunately, these systems do not always match reality. Also, it seems that it is usually the employer that gets the benefit and the employee that gets short changed on their paycheck.

Continue reading "Tennessee Class action filed for automatic lunch deductions" »

The Memphis News began a series today titled Tipping a Tricky Business that covers many of the wage and hour legal issues facing tipped wage employees, especially when they are required to share their tips.

Written by Fredric Koeppel, this first installment covers a variety of tip-related subjects that have appeared in previous Tennessee Workplace Law Blog, such as tip pooling and illegal paycheck/tip deductions.

If you are a tipped employee, tips are the bulk of your paycheck. A tipped employee with 10 years with the company often receives the same on his or her paycheck as someone who just started. As Koeppel’s piece points out, “Some diners tip well and some don’t[…] Some tip on the amount before taxes and some on the after-tax total.” Furthermore, some restaurants charge their wait staff for tips paid on a credit card as a means of recovering the charges the restaurant must pay for credit card transactions.

Continue reading "Tennessee Minimum Wage and Tipping Practices Subject of New Series of Articles" »

Apollo Group, Inc., the company best known for its subsidiary University of Phoenix, resolved a whistleblower lawsuit earlier this month originally filed in 2003. The online university's parent company has agreed to pay $78.5M to settle the whistleblower lawsuit.

This qui tam lawsuit is doubly unique: first, it was pursued by a private relator after the U.S. Department of Justice did not join the lawsuit and, secondly, in that the defendant was not guilty of fraudulent Medicare charges or a military contractor but, rather an institute of higher education.

Continue reading "College Settles False Claims (Qui Tam) Lawsuit " »

A $2.6-million lawsuit was filed in Los Angeles Superior Court on Tuesday alleging a California car wash paid its employees less than minimum wage and denied overtime. The lawsuit was filed by the state’s attorney general against the Auto Spa Express, its owner, and its present incorporation as Sunset Car Wash.

This CA lawsuit is reminiscent of our reportage earlier this year in Unpaid Wages and Unrecorded Hours Subject of Local Nashville, TN Car Wash Workers… blog.

Continue reading "Car Wash Overtime Lawsuit Seeks $630K in Back Wages" »