Home Care Agency Owes $414K in Back Pay, Damages to 62 Workers Denied Overtime

The U.S. Department of Labor reported it has obtained a consent judgment against a Philadelphia-area home healthcare agency and its owner, Teajan Kamara, who had deliberately failed to pay employees their legally earned overtime wages.

Following a filing by the department in federal district court in Philadelphia, the judgment confirms the findings of the department’s Wage and Hour Division’s investigation that determined QualiT Healthcare LLC owed the affected workers $414,351 in back wages and liquidated damages for violating overtime provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FSLA).

The court also ordered the agency and Kamara to pay a $5,649 civil money penalty for the willful nature of the violations.

Before the consent judgment, QualiT Healthcare had paid $198,591 in back wages and $9,341 in liquidated damages to the workers. The employer must now pay the remaining balance of $212,067 and the civil penalties to the department.

“The judgment we obtained will put significant amounts of money back in the pockets of hard-working care workers,” said Regional Solicitor Samantha Thomas in Philadelphia.

The FLSA requires that most employees in the U.S. be paid at least the federal minimum wage of $7.25 for all hours worked and overtime pay at not less than time and one-half their regular rate of pay for all hours worked over 40 in a workweek.