St. LOUIS — An unpaid overtime class action lawsuit was recently filed in Missouri against BJC Healthcare System by both current and former nurses and medical professionals. The lawsuit claims that the employer violated wage and hour laws by failing to pay overtime wages to the employees. The lawsuit seeks compensation for both unpaid overtime and straight-time wages resulting from BJC’s wage and hour alleged unlawful practices.
The lawsuit claims that BJC Healthcare System failed to properly pay employees for all time worked through its time recording policies and failed to pay overtime compensation to employees working over forty hours per week. It also alleges BJC’s timekeeping method improperly rounds down the amount of time that employees work to the nearest quarter hour, despite having the exact times employees clocked into work and having computerized documentation of exact work times. This practice deprived employees of pay for compensable work time in violation of established work time regulations.
Other claims include that BJC automatically deducted time for meal breaks resulting in employees not being paid for time actually worked. The lawsuit alleges that BJC knew that its employees, such as nurses, worked during the automatically deducted break time and as a custom and practice failed to pay employees for such compensable work. The lawsuit also alleges that BJC failed to properly compensate employees for shift differential bonuses and pay overtime compensation at statutorily required rates of pay.
Nurses who work in excess of 40 hours per week or during meal breaks and are not paid overtime wages should contact us today to learn more about their legal rights. In many cases, a claim for past due wages can be made for up to two years in the past. In some states, those claims can date back even longer. Due to these time deadlines, it is important to contact a qualified attorney as soon as possible to discuss your work situation to see if you have a claim for unpaid overtime pay.