Wage and Hour Division (WHD)

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MISSOURI CITY, Texas -- The U.S. Department of Labor has filed a lawsuit against CN Healthcare Services Inc. in Missouri City, Texas, for failing to pay 56 former and current licensed vocational nurses $145,987 in overtime pay. Civil money penalties totaling $38,500 have also been assessed.

The complaint, which alleges violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) was filed in the United States District Court, Southern District of Texas, Houston Division, following an investigation by the department’s Wage and Hour Division in Houston.

“This employer has been investigated several times for violating overtime provisions of the FLSA,” said Cynthia Watson, Wage and Hour regional administrator in Dallas. “The civil money penalty reinforces the department’s commitment to ensuring that employers stay in compliance.”

The investigation, covering the three-year period March 23, 2002 to March 19, 2005, determined that CN Healthcare Services paid hourly employees straight time even for hours worked over 40 in a week, a violation of the FLSA. Hours worked at multiple locations or spent in training, in-service and orientation were not included when calculating an employee’s total hours of work. The company also failed to keep the required payroll records.

In addition to CN Healthcare Services Inc., the suit names CN Healthcare Inc.; CN Nursing Services LLC; CN Medical Equipment Inc.; Godwin C. Ugwuanyi, president of CN Healthcare Services; CN Healthcare and CN Medical Equipment; Edith Jonathan, director of nursing of CN Healthcare Services; and ChiChi Ugwu, general manager of CN Healthcare Services.

The FLSA requires employees to be paid minimum wage for all hours worked and time and one-half their regular rate of pay for hours worked over 40 per week. Employers must also maintain accurate time and payroll records.

The Wage and Hour division recovered more than $166 million in back wages in fiscal year 2005 for more than 241,000 employees. Average days to resolve a complaint decreased during that time from 92 to 85 days.

For more information about the FLSA, call the Wage and Hour Houston office at (713) 339-5500 or the Department of Labor’s toll-free help line at 1-866-4USWAGE (1-866-487-9243). Information is also available on the Internet at www.wagehour.dol.gov

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