WASHINGTON, D.C. – D.C. Attorney General Brian L. Schwalb today announced that Azure Health Services, LLC (Azure), which operated assisted-living facilities across the District, will pay $1,510,000 to resolve allegations that it failed to pay frontline health care workers the wages they earned during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Azure employees risked their lives to care for our city’s most vulnerable residents during a global health crisis. Despite profiting by requiring its employees to work 24-hour shifts, Azure failed to pay the wages its hardworking employees had rightfully earned and were legally owed,” said AG Schwalb. “Thanks to the tireless work of OAG lawyers and investigators, that money is now going back into the workers’ pockets where it belongs. We will not hesitate to hold accountable any employer who cheats its workers out of the wages and pay they have earned.”
Azure and its co-owners - Beth Henson and Cynthia Warren - operated six assisted-living facilities in the District for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Before the owners sold the company, Azure had around 50 employees who served in caregiving, counseling, and support roles.
The Office of the Attorney General (OAG) opened an investigation in late 2021 after receiving complaints from frontline health care workers that, with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, Azure was requiring them to work 24-hour shifts for fourteen consecutive days while only paying workers...
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