Tag Archives: Fair Labor Standards Act

Appeals court brings back wage case for Lincoln, Omaha Nelnet call center workers

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A federal appeals court stated a $.48 per day wage loss was enough for a group of workers to bring a wage and hour case

The 10th Circuit Court of Appeals reversed a finding made by a Colorado federal court that Nelnet employees in Omaha, Lincoln and Aurora, Colorado were not entitled to pay for the time they spent booting up their computer.

More specifically, the appeals court held that the Fair Labor Standards Act de minimis exception did not apply to call center workers that helped Nelnet collect student debt.

In a relatively simple terms, the trial court found that Nelnet call center workers were performing work for the purposes of the Fair Labor Standards Act when they booted up their computers and computer programs before shift. But the time they spent was 1) too hard to measure for the company and 2) too small an amount of time to count as a matter of law.

In the case, the court estimated workers lost $.48 per shift for time spent waiting for a computer and programs to boot up.

The 10th Circuit Court of Appeals reversed the decision and gave a good explanation of how the de minimis exception works. In order for the de minimis exception to apply there is a balancing test that takes into account three factors 1) ability to measure the time 2) amount of money lost and 3) whether the time not paid was part of regular duties.

It was undisputed that the time booting up time was part of regular duties. This was important for the employees. The appellate court found the defendant couldn’t argue that keeping track of time was too difficult when they had estimated it for the purpose of the case.

The court also found that the losses for the employees were not negligible. The court noted that $.48 per shift works out to $125 per year which is a meaningful amount of money for employees who were earning $13.50 per hour.

The offices of Rehm, Bennett, Moore & Rehm, which also sponsors the Trucker Lawyers website, are located in Lincoln and Omaha, Nebraska. Five attorneys represent plaintiffs in workers’ compensation, personal injury, employment and Social Security disability claims. The firm’s lawyers have combined experience of more than 95 years of practice representing injured workers and truck drivers in Nebraska, Iowa and other states with Nebraska and Iowa jurisdiction. The lawyers regularly represent hurt truck drivers and often sue Crete Carrier Corporation, K&B Trucking, Werner Enterprises, UPS, and FedEx. Lawyers in the firm hold licenses in Nebraska and Iowa and are active in groups such as the College of Workers’ Compensation Lawyers, Workers' Injury Law & Advocacy Group (WILG), American Association for Justice (AAJ), the Nebraska Association of Trial Attorneys (NATA), and the American Board of Trial Advocates (ABOTA). We have the knowledge, experience and toughness to win rightful compensation for people who have been injured or mistreated.

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How to get paid regular wages for missing work due to a medical visit in a workers’ compensation case

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Can an injured worker claim their regular pay if they go to a medical appointment as part of their workers compensation claim? The answer is yes. But like most legal questions there are always qualifications.

Why you can get paid wages for workers’ compensation medical visits
First, per the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) and federal regulation 29 CFR 785.43, getting paid for time spent going to a doctor applies when the employee seeks treatment on site or during regular work hours. An employee might have a harder time claiming pay if they are forced to seek medical treatment during non-work hours. But I believe it would be a close and interesting legal issue if time spent going to employer-compelled medical treatment during non-work hours would be covered under the FLSA.

Secondly, per case law, it seems like that medical treatment would need to be expressly authorized and set up by the employer.  It might be more difficult for an employee to get paid their wages while taking time off of work for medical treatment in a disputed workers’ compensation case.

Another complication may be if an employee takes paid leave to attend an employer-ordered medical appointment. Arguably since paid leave or paid time off isn’t mandated by law it might be difficult to bring a claim under the FLSA for the forced taking of paid leave. State wage and hour laws like the Nebraska Wage Payment and Collection Act may provide a remedy.

Why wage and hour law can be better than workers’ compensation claims when it comes to wage payment issues

So why would an injured worker want to claim unpaid wages instead of temporary disability? Several reasons, in Nebraska temporary total disability pays two-thirds of your pay and temporary partial disability pays two-thirds the difference between reduced hours and your average weekly wage. But under wage and hour law, a workers can claim their full wages for time spent going to certain medical visits as part of their workers’ compensation claim.

In Nebraska, overtime pay is not taken into account in determining workers compensation benefits. But under the Fair Labor Standards Act an employee can claim overtime pay. The Nebraska Workers compensation act also caps benefit rates at $882 per week. There is no cap to hourly pay under the FLSA.

Nebraska also has a one week waiting period for benefits. In injuries where disability lasts less than six weeks, that first week of disability isn’t paid. There is no waiting period for unpaid wages under the FLSA.

I’ve written about how the Nebraska workers’ compensation act has weak attorney fee and penalty provisions that make it easy for employers to shortchange employees when it comes to workers compensation disability benefit payments. In contrast the FLSA has strong attorney fee and penalty provisions that make it more attractive to bring claims for smaller amounts. Smaller FLSA claims can also be combined into collective action claims.  The Nebraska Workers’ Compensation Act, like most of other workers’ compensation laws, does not allow for collective or class action cases.

The only disadvantage of getting wages over workers’ compensation benefits is wages are taxable while workers compensation benefits are not taxable.

How an employee can bring a wage claim for time spent going to the doctor for workers’ compensation case.

The most important part of a wage and hour case for a worker is being able to precisely prove lost time. This should be simple for injured workers as medical visits usually only take place a few times a week at the most. Many injured workers keep track of mileage already as mileage benefits are part of medical benefits under workers’ compensation in Nebraska. If you can keep track of mileage, you can also keep track of time spent going to medical appointments. If an injured worker turns in mileage to their attorney or workers compensation claims department, there is no reason they can’t turn over claims for unpaid wages to Human Resources directly or through their attorneys.

Anti-retaliation provisions

Retaliation is always a concern of workers who exercise their rights at work. Fortunately, the FLSA makes it unlawful for an employer to retaliate against an employee for exercising their rights under the law. Nebraska and most other states prohibit employers from retaliating against workers who file workers compensation as well.

The offices of Rehm, Bennett, Moore & Rehm, which also sponsors the Trucker Lawyers website, are located in Lincoln and Omaha, Nebraska. Five attorneys represent plaintiffs in workers’ compensation, personal injury, employment and Social Security disability claims. The firm’s lawyers have combined experience of more than 95 years of practice representing injured workers and truck drivers in Nebraska, Iowa and other states with Nebraska and Iowa jurisdiction. The lawyers regularly represent hurt truck drivers and often sue Crete Carrier Corporation, K&B Trucking, Werner Enterprises, UPS, and FedEx. Lawyers in the firm hold licenses in Nebraska and Iowa and are active in groups such as the College of Workers’ Compensation Lawyers, Workers' Injury Law & Advocacy Group (WILG), American Association for Justice (AAJ), the Nebraska Association of Trial Attorneys (NATA), and the American Board of Trial Advocates (ABOTA). We have the knowledge, experience and toughness to win rightful compensation for people who have been injured or mistreated.

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Watch your body clock and time clock for a safe and fair “fall back”

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Early last week most of us felt a little dazed and tired from the end of daylight  savings time. But will that time change lead to more injuries and some workers getting shorted on their paychecks?

The end of daylight savings time and workplace safety

Studies show that daylight savings time in the spring leads to an increase in work injuries. While no studies have been done on the end of daylight savings time, experts state that any changes to the bodies ciciadian rhythms can lead to lower concentration, which can increase the risk of work injury. In short, if you feel a little off in the days after daylight savings time, your chances of injury on the job increase.

Fatigue leads to injuries. The risk of fatigue-related injury at work tends to increase in November and December as many workers take on increased hours or second jobs during the holiday season.

The time shift and wage theft

A tweet from a high-profile New York congresswoman reminded workers who work overnight to check their paystubs as sometime computerized timekeeping records will miss time shifts. Workers in human services, transportation and retailing would be particularly vulnerable to this form of wage theft.

Proving up actual unpaid time is one of the biggest challenges for employees when it comes to wage and hour law. The United States Department of Labor has an app callled Timesheet which allows workers to monitor their own hours.  The law favors employees who bring wage and hour violations to the attention of their employers in a prompt manner.

The federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) also includes anti-retaliation provisions which protect an employee who brings up a potential wage and hour violation to their employer.

While one hour of unpiad wages would be a small amount of money, an employer would not be able to plead a de minimis defense. That defense only applies in pre and post shift activities. Workers can join together in collective action cases under the FLSA. This allows workers to join together for relatively small amounts of wage loss. But workers are forced to opt-in or affirmatively join those cases. The opt-in provision works to limit the actual damages payable in these cases. I am involved in a collective case now where about 1/10 of the eligible workers decided to opt-in.

Up until 2018, I think it would be fair to say that workers who banded to together to address unpaid wages would also be covered under the National Labor Relations Act. (NLRA) In the wake of the Epic decision, I have some doubts about whether that activity would be protected. The Epic decision also gave employers the ability to take away the right of employees to join together to sue the employer for wage violations.

The offices of Rehm, Bennett, Moore & Rehm, which also sponsors the Trucker Lawyers website, are located in Lincoln and Omaha, Nebraska. Five attorneys represent plaintiffs in workers’ compensation, personal injury, employment and Social Security disability claims. The firm’s lawyers have combined experience of more than 95 years of practice representing injured workers and truck drivers in Nebraska, Iowa and other states with Nebraska and Iowa jurisdiction. The lawyers regularly represent hurt truck drivers and often sue Crete Carrier Corporation, K&B Trucking, Werner Enterprises, UPS, and FedEx. Lawyers in the firm hold licenses in Nebraska and Iowa and are active in groups such as the College of Workers’ Compensation Lawyers, Workers' Injury Law & Advocacy Group (WILG), American Association for Justice (AAJ), the Nebraska Association of Trial Attorneys (NATA), and the American Board of Trial Advocates (ABOTA). We have the knowledge, experience and toughness to win rightful compensation for people who have been injured or mistreated.

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Truckers Call Baloney On Bloomberg View

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Truckers were quick to criticize a Bloomberg View piece about the effect of shortage of truck drivers on the economy that our firm posted on our Facebook page.

Hedge fund manager Conor Sen made a valid point that the lack of truck drivers could drive up the cost of goods and slow down the economy. Sen went on to argue that this shortage will be exacerbated by the imminent automation of trucking. Why train for a job that will soon be eliminated?

There are two problems with his article.

Truckers pointed out that the shortage of drivers could be attributed to bad working conditions within a trucking. Sen didn’t address this in his article where he portrayed the driver shortage as something that just happened.

Poor working conditions for truckers are somewhat of a function of employment laws. For example, truck drivers are largely exempt from the Fair Labor Standards Act. While better laws for truckers would probably help attract more drivers, the trucking industry is fighting state law efforts to improve trucker wages. The wages of professional drivers are being further eroded by the use of contract drivers who are wrongfully classified as contractors rather than employers.

Secondly trucking industry observers believe automation is far from imminent. Professional drivers do a lot more than just drive. Even some tech industry boosters in the business press admit that automation may not be imminent. Increasing automation in truck driving could benefit drivers by making driving safer. Most airplanes fly by autopilot, but planes still have pilots.

In short, the trucker shortage isn’t just something that happened. It is driven by poor working conditions for truckers. Those poor working conditions are caused in part by bad laws which seem to be getting worse. It’s also not fair or reasonable to argue the supposed imminent arrival of automation to truck driving is causing a truck driver shortage. Automation of trucking is far from imminent, but increased automation may make trucking safer which would make it a more attractive job, which in turn would increase the supply of drivers.

The offices of Rehm, Bennett, Moore & Rehm, which also sponsors the Trucker Lawyers website, are located in Lincoln and Omaha, Nebraska. Five attorneys represent plaintiffs in workers’ compensation, personal injury, employment and Social Security disability claims. The firm’s lawyers have combined experience of more than 95 years of practice representing injured workers and truck drivers in Nebraska, Iowa and other states with Nebraska and Iowa jurisdiction. The lawyers regularly represent hurt truck drivers and often sue Crete Carrier Corporation, K&B Trucking, Werner Enterprises, UPS, and FedEx. Lawyers in the firm hold licenses in Nebraska and Iowa and are active in groups such as the College of Workers’ Compensation Lawyers, Workers' Injury Law & Advocacy Group (WILG), American Association for Justice (AAJ), the Nebraska Association of Trial Attorneys (NATA), and the American Board of Trial Advocates (ABOTA). We have the knowledge, experience and toughness to win rightful compensation for people who have been injured or mistreated.

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Is The NEW GIG A New Bargain For Workers?

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Lost among the din of Twitter feuds and even more serious reporting on tax reform, is attention to a tax bill about gig economy workers that could impact more than just tax policy.

The New Economy Works to Guarantee Independence and Growth Act (NEW GIG Act) essentially allows firms such as Uber to withhold income taxes for workers without that withholding being construed as evidence of an employee-employer relationship. Boston College of Law Professors Shu Yi Oei and Diane Ring perceptively point out that the NEW GIG Act will help define how gig economy workers are classified for purposes of laws that cover employees like anti-discrimination laws, unemployment insurance, wage and hour laws and possibly workers compensation laws. Their argument is that NEW GIG allows companies like Uber to define their workers as contractors within the tax code and that helps creates a presumption of independent contractor status.

Though NEW GIG creates a safe harbor for gig economy companies that collect income taxes, NEW GIG does not abolish the common law test that distinguishes an employee from an independent contractor. The common law test rests on an employer having control over the method and means of work. But the tax code is a critical piece to classification of workers. True contractors are able to deduct their expenses from their taxes because legally they are running a business. Courts hold that when a driver or any other worker is essentially running their own business, they are an independent contractor. NEW GIG uses the tax code to encourage workers to take deductions for expenses and hence self-classify as contractors rather than employees.

Federal employment laws like the Fair Labor Standards Act depend on the so-called common law test distinguishing between contractors and employees. State wage and hour laws, fair employment laws and workers compensation laws may not always rely on those definitions. In cases where a state doesn’t use a common law test to distinguish between employees and contractors, the question would be whether NEW GIG would pre-empt those state lawsNEW GIG does not appear to have an express preemption clause, so courts could tend to uphold state employment laws that would conflict with NEW GIG. Lack of express pre-emption language in NEW GIG may also mean that courts wouldn’t pre-empt state employment laws that rely on the common law test distinguishing contractors from employees. If courts read NEW GIG as just a way for gig economy companies to collect income tax from their workers without creating an employee-employer relationship, then its impact could be muted on state laws and possibly on federal laws.

NEW GIG is sponsored in the Senate by John Thune (R.-South Dakota). Thune has recently criticized Uber for customer data breaches and sexual harassment allegations within the company. Those concerns have been echoed by Senator Mark Warner (D-Virginia) who is a leading proponent of the gig economy. (11) The fact that supporters of the gig economy appear to be questioning the practices of Uber could show the gig economy companies may not have an easy time in fundamentally altering the relationship between companies and their workers.

But Uber is not the only gig economy company and public statements by our elected officials don’t always match up with their actions. Even if NEW GIG is just a tax bill there is power in the perceptions and presumptions that would be created if NEW GIG were passed. Advocates for employee rights would be well advised to keep a close watch over the NEW GIG bills in the House and Senate.

The offices of Rehm, Bennett, Moore & Rehm, which also sponsors the Trucker Lawyers website, are located in Lincoln and Omaha, Nebraska. Five attorneys represent plaintiffs in workers’ compensation, personal injury, employment and Social Security disability claims. The firm’s lawyers have combined experience of more than 95 years of practice representing injured workers and truck drivers in Nebraska, Iowa and other states with Nebraska and Iowa jurisdiction. The lawyers regularly represent hurt truck drivers and often sue Crete Carrier Corporation, K&B Trucking, Werner Enterprises, UPS, and FedEx. Lawyers in the firm hold licenses in Nebraska and Iowa and are active in groups such as the College of Workers’ Compensation Lawyers, Workers' Injury Law & Advocacy Group (WILG), American Association for Justice (AAJ), the Nebraska Association of Trial Attorneys (NATA), and the American Board of Trial Advocates (ABOTA). We have the knowledge, experience and toughness to win rightful compensation for people who have been injured or mistreated.

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Department of Labor Weighs In on New Age of Salary Servitude for ‘Executives’

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Most of the U.S. workforce has the right, provided by the Fair Labor Standards Act, to be paid overtime for working more than 40 hours in a week. Before the federal government set rules for overtime, most employees worked longer hours, and millions of Americans worked six or seven days a week, as Chinese factory workers do today. Salaried workers also have the right to be paid a premium for overtime work, unless they fall into an exempt category as a professional, an administrator, or an executive. Exempt employees must be skilled and exercise independent judgment, or be a boss with employees to supervise. However, many companies have worked to get around these overtime rules by classifying employees like cooks, convenience store employees or restaurant workers as “managers,” “supervisors,” or “assistant managers or supervisors,” so that their employer can deny them overtime under this exception. 

In May 2016, the Department of Labor issued its final rule establishing a new minimum salary threshold for the white-collar exemptions (executive, administrative and professional) under the Fair Labor Standards Act. This new threshold of $913 per week ($47,476 annualized) more than doubles the current minimum weekly salary threshold of $455 per week ($23,660 annualized).  While that may seem like a huge increase, the old threshold level is only $2 a week above the poverty level for a family of four. Twenty-one states have filed suit to challenge this rule, citing the rule will force many businesses, including state and local governments, to unfairly and substantially increase their employment costs. 

The old rule allowed companies to put employees on “salary” at a low rate and require them to work sometimes significant overtime. The fact that so many government entities are concerned about this new rule substantially increasing their employment costs underscores the extent to which even government entities have taken advantage of employees in this fashion. Can you imagine earning $25,000/year and having to work 50, 60 or 70 hours a week? Even at 50 hours a week, that equates to an hourly wage of only $8.01!

In the first year, the department estimates that the new rule may affect, in some manner, over 10 million workers who earn between $455/week and the new $913/week threshold.  

The median worker has seen a wage increase of just 5 percent between 1979 and 2012, despite overall productivity growth of 74.5 percent (Mishel and Shierholz, 2013), according to the Economic Policy Institute. One reason Americans’ paychecks are not keeping pace with their productivity is that millions of middle-class and even lower-middle-class workers are working overtime and not getting paid for it. Before this rule change, the federal wage and hour law was out of date. This change purports to correct this modern day servitude that the law – for the last 30 years – has carved out a huge exception, allowing workers to be taken advantage of simply by assigning them a title and paying them a salary.  

 

Sources:

The offices of Rehm, Bennett, Moore & Rehm, which also sponsors the Trucker Lawyers website, are located in Lincoln and Omaha, Nebraska. Five attorneys represent plaintiffs in workers’ compensation, personal injury, employment and Social Security disability claims. The firm’s lawyers have combined experience of more than 95 years of practice representing injured workers and truck drivers in Nebraska, Iowa and other states with Nebraska and Iowa jurisdiction. The lawyers regularly represent hurt truck drivers and often sue Crete Carrier Corporation, K&B Trucking, Werner Enterprises, UPS, and FedEx. Lawyers in the firm hold licenses in Nebraska and Iowa and are active in groups such as the College of Workers’ Compensation Lawyers, Workers' Injury Law & Advocacy Group (WILG), American Association for Justice (AAJ), the Nebraska Association of Trial Attorneys (NATA), and the American Board of Trial Advocates (ABOTA). We have the knowledge, experience and toughness to win rightful compensation for people who have been injured or mistreated.

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Nebraska Employers Should Be Required to Post Information about Workers’ Compensation Benefits

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hanging-300x300The federal government requires that employers post summaries of rights under laws like the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), the Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSH) and anti-discrimination laws like Title VII at their worksites. Most states, including Nebraska, have similar requirements. But Nebraska is among a minority of states that does not require employers to post notices about an employee’s rights under our state’s workers’ compensation act. This lawyer believes that this practice needs to change in Nebraska.

My informal inspection of worksites in Nebraska has shown me that when anything is posted about workers’ compensation, it is usually a poster about treating with an occupational medicine clinic if a person is hurt at work. The problem is that if you are hurt on the job in Nebraska, you can pick your own doctor. If an employee doesn’t exercise the right to pick their own doctor, they are taking the risk of undercutting their workers’ compensation claim.

Illinois has a good poster that explains an injured employee’s rights and responsibilities under their workers’ compensation act. I particularly like the Illinois poster because it tells employees that 1) they have some right to pick their own doctor and 2) they can’t be discriminated against for filing a claim. To me, the Illinois poster reads a lot of what an attorney like me would tell a prospective client who called with a work injury claim.

But not all posters are created equal. I think Kansas provides an example of a poster that doesn’t really help employees. Though the poster is bilingual, it doesn’t really tell employees anything about their rights and responsibilities besides what they need to do to file a report of injury. The poster also encourages workers to call their employer’s workers’ compensation insurer or claims administrator for help. This is problematic, because employees and employers don’t always have the same interests in a workers’ compensation claim.

My view is that readily available, accurate and unbiased information is good for injured employees to protect their rights under any state’s workers’ compensation act. I think posters like the Illinois poster meet these qualifications. Of course, detractors might say that employees can readily find information on the internet, so posters are a relic of the 20th century.

In response, I would say that information off the internet isn’t always reliable. Part of the reason has to do with how search engines work. Marketers and lawyers try to game the system so when an injured worker is looking for a lawyer, those firms always show up in searches. Frankly, that’s part of the reason I write blog posts like the one you are reading now. Even though I try my best to explain the law accurately, I have a slant toward representing employees, so I can’t claim to be unbiased.

But a good poster or summary of rights is about as close to unbiased as you can get. Employers also have some fear of displaying unbiased information about workplace rights in the workplace. Some employers fought a poster from the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) informing employees about their right to form a union.

Knowledge is power, which is why I believe all Nebraska employees should have complete, unbiased and clear information about their rights under the Nebraska Workers’ Compensation Act readily available in their workplace.

The offices of Rehm, Bennett, Moore & Rehm, which also sponsors the Trucker Lawyers website, are located in Lincoln and Omaha, Nebraska. Five attorneys represent plaintiffs in workers’ compensation, personal injury, employment and Social Security disability claims. The firm’s lawyers have combined experience of more than 95 years of practice representing injured workers and truck drivers in Nebraska, Iowa and other states with Nebraska and Iowa jurisdiction. The lawyers regularly represent hurt truck drivers and often sue Crete Carrier Corporation, K&B Trucking, Werner Enterprises, UPS, and FedEx. Lawyers in the firm hold licenses in Nebraska and Iowa and are active in groups such as the College of Workers’ Compensation Lawyers, Workers' Injury Law & Advocacy Group (WILG), American Association for Justice (AAJ), the Nebraska Association of Trial Attorneys (NATA), and the American Board of Trial Advocates (ABOTA). We have the knowledge, experience and toughness to win rightful compensation for people who have been injured or mistreated.

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Why CNAs and Home Health Aides Should Care about the Fight over a Federal Regulation

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090429-A-0868C-005A U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., recently struck down a federal regulation that would mandate that home health aides are paid the minimum wage and paid overtime under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). Though the decision will likely be appealed, this decision is still a bad decision for the men and women who do the hardest jobs in health care – home health aides and certified nursing assistants.

Why home health aides aren’t covered by federal wage laws

Home health aides were exempted from the FLSA 40 years ago in order to make caring for the elderly less expensive. However, companion care has become a big and very profitable business. An index of publically traded home-health-care stocks has consistently outperformed the stock market as a whole for the last 13 years. This profitably is due in part to the minimum wage and overtime exemptions for home health aides.

How the home health exception affects other jobs in the medical field

The federal government estimates that nearly 1 million are employed as home health aides, while private sources estimate that number as 2 million. Home health is also a fast-growing field of employment. Home health aides essentially have the same job duties as certified nursing assistants (CNAs). CNAs are generally covered by minimum wage and overtime laws, but workers with the same skills and same duties are exempt from those laws if they are working as home health aides. CNA wages are pushed down by home health aide wages, which are exempt from federal wage laws.

Why pay is about more than wages

A recent study of CNAs showed that nearly 60 percent of CNAs report injuries during a 12-month period. The injury rate is similar for home health aides. The study also showed that higher-paid CNAs were injured less frequently than lower-paid CNAs. The study indicated that organizational factors really drove injury rates among CNAs. In other words, in settings where CNAs are truly valued, paid fairly and trained, the injury rates are lower. But if CNAs are treated as low-wage, high-turnover cogs in a machine, then injury rates are higher. Low pay for CNAs and home health aides isn’t just an issue for employees. Low pay for home health aides and CNAs has been linked to poor patient care.

While the Obama administration has been criticized for being too aggressive in enforcing the FLSA, the U.S. Department of Labor announced that they will delay enforcement of the home health aide regulation until July 2015. This assumes courts will let the Department of Labor actually enforce the regulation. Anyone concerned about this issue should contact their members of Congress to support legislation that ends the home health aide exception. People should also contact their state legislators to support legislation that would ensure that home health aides are covered by state wage and hour laws.

The offices of Rehm, Bennett, Moore & Rehm, which also sponsors the Trucker Lawyers website, are located in Lincoln and Omaha, Nebraska. Five attorneys represent plaintiffs in workers’ compensation, personal injury, employment and Social Security disability claims. The firm’s lawyers have combined experience of more than 95 years of practice representing injured workers and truck drivers in Nebraska, Iowa and other states with Nebraska and Iowa jurisdiction. The lawyers regularly represent hurt truck drivers and often sue Crete Carrier Corporation, K&B Trucking, Werner Enterprises, UPS, and FedEx. Lawyers in the firm hold licenses in Nebraska and Iowa and are active in groups such as the College of Workers’ Compensation Lawyers, Workers' Injury Law & Advocacy Group (WILG), American Association for Justice (AAJ), the Nebraska Association of Trial Attorneys (NATA), and the American Board of Trial Advocates (ABOTA). We have the knowledge, experience and toughness to win rightful compensation for people who have been injured or mistreated.

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