ASHEVILLE – A newly filed federal lawsuit says the HCA-owned Mission Health system illegally withheld pay of 1,000 or more employees.
The class and collection action lawsuit filed April 25 by respiratory therapist Sharon McRee said the Tennessee-based HCA “willfully manipulated both the beginning and end of shift time records” for her and other hourly workers “to reflect less time worked when (HCA) submitted these employees’ records to payroll, resulting in less time paid than time worked.”
Other “unlawful wage theft and pay practices” included not paying overtime and not giving meal breaks, even though time for them were taken out of paychecks, said the suit filed in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of North Carolina in Asheville.
No dollar amount was yet given, but the complaint submitted by McRee’s attorney Matthew Earl Lee of Raleigh called for the certification of a class action suit and for compensatory and liquidated damages to be given for unpaid overtime as well as penalty damages, attorneys’ fees and more.
As of May 3, the court’s electronic filing system showed no responses by HCA. Company spokesperson Nancy Lindell said HCA wouldn’t comment on the ongoing litigation.
The for-profit HCA bought the nonprofit Mission for $1.5 billion in 2019. Since then, it has faced a raft of legal actions and other challenges. The most prominent are federal sanctions over deaths of ER patients, federal and state lawsuits alleging an illegal monopoly and a suit by North Carolina Attorney General and Democratic gubernatorial candidate Josh Stein alleging failure to maintain cancer and emergency care levels as promised before the sale.
In this most recent suit, McRee said she worked as a respiratory therapist for Mission from July 2002 through the time it was bought by HCA, leaving in July 2022. She worked primarily in a medical-surgical unit and neuro-trauma intensive care unit, though also occasionally as a floor respiratory therapist.
In one example, her suit said she generally clocked in at 6:23 a.m. and started working, but her pay reflected a 6:30 a.m. starting time. She usually ended her shift around 7 p.m., but sometimes she was required to work later, though she noticed the time she was paid for only went until 7 p.m.
“Defendant is a large and highly sophisticated employer, fully aware of the requirements of federal and state law with respect to payment of wages” the suit says.
“Plaintiff cannot yet state the exact number of similarly-situated persons but avers, upon information and belief, that the group of potential Fair Labor Standards Act Collective members consist of approximately 1,000 or more persons,” it says.
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New firm named to monitor Mission Hospital compliance with HCA purchase agreement
Joel Burgess has lived in WNC for more than 20 years, covering politics, government and other news. He’s written award-winning stories on topics ranging from gerrymandering to police use of force. Got a tip? Contact Burgess at jburgess@citizentimes.com, 828-713-1095 or on Twitter @AVLreporter. Please help support this type of journalism with a subscription to the Citizen Times.
This article originally appeared on Asheville Citizen Times: Federal lawsuit: Mission hospital illegally kept pay of 1,000 workers
