Philadelphia Home Care Agency Ordered to Pay $7M in Back Wages, Damages

A federal court has ordered a Philadelphia home care agency and its owner to pay more than $7 million in back wages and damages to 1,230 current and former employees.

After two years of litigation, Judge Chad F. Kenney in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania affirmed the Department of Labor’s finding that Nursing Home Care Management Inc. and its owner willfully failed to pay overtime wages, in most cases by not including employees’ time for work-related travel when calculating wages.

The court found that the company, operating as Prestige Home Care Agency, and its owner, Alexander Dorfman, owed $3,538,360 in back wages and an equal amount in liquidated damages to the affected employees.

According to prosecutors, the court found that Prestige failed to pay home health aides for time spent traveling between clients’ homes in the same workday and between Prestige’s administrative office and clients’ homes in the same workday; paid certain employees straight-time hourly rates for all hours worked, including for hours over 40 in a workweek; segregated types of work performed by certain employees during a workweek rather than combining all hours worked when computing overtime wages due; and failed to keep accurate time and payroll records as required by law.

In June 2021, DOL filed sued the employers to recover the back wages and damages owed.

“The court’s judgment affirms the Department of Labor’s position that home care employers must pay employees for travel time, which is an essential part of their job duties,” said Deputy Regional Solicitor Samantha Thomas.

Prestige Home Care Agency provides skilled and home healthcare, veterans assistance, adult home and personal care and intellectual disability services throughout southeastern Pennsylvania

Source: U.S. Department of Labor