A woman has filed a lawsuit alleging that Louisville, Ky.-based Kindred Healthcare broke state and federal law by withholding pay from workers, Law360 reported July 28.
Jennifer Parrott, who said she worked for Kindred in Indiana for less than two years until April 2021, filed the lawsuit July 27 in Kentucky federal court, according to the report.
In her lawsuit, Ms. Parrott said Kindred automatically deducted meal breaks from employees' pay even though the workers regularly fulfilled their job responsibilities when they were supposed to be on their breaks, according to Law360.
"Kindred knowingly and deliberately failed to compensate plaintiff and the putative class members for all hours worked each workweek and the proper amount of overtime on a routine and regular basis," the class and collective action said, according to the report.
Kindred operates healthcare facilities nationwide. Brentwood, Tenn.-based LifePoint Health acquired Kindred in December, and Kindred and LifePoint launched a new company, ScionHealth. ScionHealth comprises Kindred's 61 long-term acute care hospitals as well as 18 community-based, short-term acute care hospital campuses from LifePoint.
"Given that this is still very early and active litigation, we are not going to comment on these allegations," Michelle Augusty, senior vice president of communications at LifePoint, said in a July 29 statement shared with Becker's. "However, we can affirm that Kindred Rehabilitation Services is committed to being a strong and desirable employer and values the critical work of its team members across the country. Further, it understands and values the importance of paying team members in compliance with federal, state and local laws."
Ms. Parrott seeks to represent a group of current and former Kindred employees she said were subjected to the same Kindred pay policies, and the lawsuit seeks back pay, damages, litigation costs and attorney fees for those workers, according to Law360.