Three employees of West Virginia United Health System, commonly branded as WVU Medicine, recently filed a class-action lawsuit against the health system, alleging it failed to compensate them for overtime work.
The plaintiffs — a housekeeping assistant, laboratory assistant and environmental services team lead at the West Virginia University Hospital in Morgantown — named 28 defendants in the suit, including several hospitals under WVU Medicine's control. The lawsuit claims that more than 10,000 "similarly situated" employees might have also had their overtime pay withheld.
Under the Fair Labor Standards Act and West Virginia minimum wage and maximum hour standards, the plaintiffs are eligible for overtime equal to time and one-half their regular pay rate for all hours worked over 40 in a workweek. The suit contends that the plaintiffs have been "unlawfully deprived" of this compensation.
The lawsuit calls this alleged FLSA violation "willful, unreasonable and bad faith." The plaintiffs seek unpaid compensation, plus interest, for themselves and similarly situated employees, as well as the cost of attorney fees and "other relief as may be just and proper."
WVU Medicine does not comment on pending litigation, a representative for the health system told Becker's Sept. 11.