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The plaintiff was a home health care worker who provided in-home care to Home Care Network’s clients. She alleged her employer, Home Care Network, denied time-and-a-half overtime wages to domestic service employees for hours worked in excess of 40 hours per week from January 1, 2015, when a change in the law suddenly made it so the overtime rules applied to domestic service workers, until April 30, 2016, when the plaintiff alleged Home Care Network began paying time-and-a-half overtime.
The question in this case was when the Department of Labor’s new rule, which required that domestic service workers be paid time-and-a-half overtime, took effect. The defendants argued that the new regulation did not take effect until October 2015. We opposed their arguments, arguing instead that the new rule had been in effect since January 1, 2015. The court agreed with us. We eventually obtained an outstanding result for the class members because of our success on this legal question.
After the plaintiff defeated the defendant’s Motion for Summary Judgment and the court held that the overtime law took effect on January 1, 2015, the employer began paying back wages to the would-be class members in this case. Eventually, the parties agreed to a settlement.
Home Care Network agreed to pay $670,792.17 to their domestic care workers to settle this case. The settlement provides that FLSA opt-in plaintiffs (i.e., those who returned their consent forms during the case) would receive 136% of unpaid overtime wages, all class members would receive 100% of unpaid overtime wages, and those denied overtime wages after October 13, 2015 would receive an additional $284.26 for Ohio Prompt Pay Act liquidated damages. The settlement did not include any attorneys’ fees or costs, which the parties agreed they would let the court determine.
The court ultimately granted Biller & Kimble’s request, over Home Care’s objection, for $185,658.73 and $2,821.63 in advanced litigation costs.
In addition, the court approved an additional $8,500 to be paid to the named plaintiff for the service she provided to her co-workers by bringing the case.
The U.S. District Court agreed with Biller & Kimble and held that the new overtime law took effect on January 1, 2015. This victory preserved months of unpaid overtime claims for Home Care’s domestic service workers.
The court granted the plaintiff’s motion for class certification, finding that all the defendant’s domestic service workers were properly included in the same FLSA collective class and Ohio Rule 23 class.