Takeaway: U.S. Supreme Court case law has removed the deference that courts used to afford to agency interpretations of laws. Yet this case law did not invalidate the U.S. Department of Labor’s (DOL’s) determination that the Fair Labor Standards Act’s (FLSA’s) overtime requirement applies to home care services.
The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has upheld the U.S. Department of Labor’s (DOL’s) 2013 regulation requiring home care service companies to pay overtime.
A home health care company, Americare Healthcare Services, and its owner operated in Ohio, providing services to elderly and disabled clients through the state’s Medicaid waiver programs. Americare served a specific population of Nepali Ohioans who, based on cultural and religious beliefs, were unlikely to accept care from anyone other than a close family member. Americare mostly employed family members to treat their clients, but a small percentage of its workers were not client family members.
The DOL claimed that, from October 2018 to September 2019, Americare and its owner paid its workers a consistent hourly rate but did not pay them overtime. Records showed that at least one attorney had advised Americare’s owner that he should pay overtime to workers and that, as of July 2018, the owner paid overtime to employees of his other company, Intra-National Home Care.
In September 2019, Americare began paying overtime to workers by varying their hourly rates individually based on the number of hours they...
Renowned human rights lawyer, Femi Falana, SAN, has criticised President Bola Tinubu for relying on claims by United States President Donald Trump regarding the reported killing of senior Islamic ...