Los Angeles—The Labor Commissioner’s Office has cited Feld Care Therapy, Inc., located in Westlake Village, $9,041,100 for willfully misclassifying 1,280 speech, physical and occupational therapists as independent contractors. The part-time workers, who traveled to clients’ homes to provide care, were not given paid sick leave or California’s COVID-19 Supplemental Paid Sick Leave (SPSL) as required by law.
“During the height of the pandemic these misclassified therapists provided health care services while they were simultaneously being denied paid sick leave and COVID-19 SPSL,” said California Labor Commissioner Lilia García-Brower. “My office will continue to fight worker misclassification because it denies workers basic protections, undercuts law-abiding employers and robs public coffers.”
The Labor Commissioner’s Office opened its investigation into Feld Care Therapy, Inc., dba FeldCare Connects, in November 2020 after receiving a report of labor law violation that the company was incorrectly classifying employees as independent contractors. The Labor Commissioner’s Bureau of Field Enforcement conducted an audit of the company’s records from 2019 to 2022 and uncovered the willful misclassification and other violations, including workers not being provided with complete itemized wage statements.
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