Nurse Wage & Overtime Class Action: Brian Center – Lexington, NC

Brian Center Nursing Care, a short- and long-term nursing facility in Lexington, North Carolina has been accused of failing to pay its hourly employees for “off-the-clock” work and overtime. In a newly-filed class action lawsuit, an LPN from Greensboro says her former employer “maintained a policy and practice” of depriving hourly nurses of their hard-earned wages.

Brian Center Nursing Care Class Action

Plaintiff worked as a Licensed Vocational Nurse / Licensed Practical Nurse (LVN / LPN) at Lexington’s Brian Center from February 2014 to September 2015. During that time, the nurse says that she – and other “similarly-situated employees” – were “not properly compensated” for “off-the-clock” work.

Her class action has been filed on behalf of:

“All current and former Nurses or other job titles performing similar job duties employed by Brian Center Nursing Care / Lexington at any time during the last three years.”

Plaintiff is being represented by Jacob R. Rusch, David H. Grounds and Molly E. Nephew, three experienced wage and hour attorneys at Johnson Becker, PLLC and sponsors of WageAdvocates.com. The lawsuit is now seeking class certification. If you worked as a Registered Nurse, Licensed Practical Nurse or other health care employee at the Brian Center, the attorneys at WageAdvocates.com want to hear from you.

Forced To Work “Off The Clock,” Nurse Says

According to court documents, nurses at the Brian Center were required to clock out for a total of 30 minutes during any shift of 8 hours or more. But instead of receiving a break, nurses “were required to continue to work on the nursing floor and care for the patients while being clocked out,” Plaintiff writes in her class action.

When nurses didn’t clock out for these unpaid “breaks,” the Brian Center would automatically deduct 30 minutes from their time-sheets, the nurse claims. These “off-the-clock” hours, she argues, should have been paid at no less than the $7.25 per hour mandated by the Fair Labor Standards Act. But instead of paying nurses properly, the Brian Center forced its employees to work “off-the-clock” – without compensation, the lawsuit claims.

In Plaintiff’s words, “[she] and other similarly situated individuals were not compensated for the ‘off-the-clock’ work performed, either because the ‘off-the-clock’ hours were not captured in the [Brian Center]’s time-keeping system or because the [Brian Center] removed the hours from [a nurse]’s timesheet.”

Plaintiff: Nurses Deprived Of Overtime Wages

In some cases, the Plaintiff continues, these “off-the-clock” hours should have pushed nurses over the 40-hour-per-week threshold for overtime pay. Per the US Department of Labor, most Licensed Practical Nurses, Registered Nurses and similar health care employees are entitled to overtime wages for any hours worked over 40 in one week. But the Brian Center – in violation of federal and North Carolina state law – failed to pay its nurses time-and-a-half for their overtime hours, the nurse claims.

“[Brian Center] knew or should have known that its employees are not exempt under the FLSA, and it could have properly compensated Plaintiff and the Class for the overtime work they performed, but it did not.”

This isn’t the first time Brian Center has found itself in legal trouble. In fact, the nursing center has a “history of violating the law,” according to the recently-filed class action. In 2015, for example, the US Department of Justice accused the Brian Center of “knowingly and routinely submitt[ing] false claims to Medicare for rehabilitation therapy services that were not medically reasonable and necessary.”