Renton, Wash.-based Providence has been found liable by a Washington state judge for nearly $7.2 million in underpaid wages for thousands of hourly caregivers, Law360 reported Jan. 16.
King County Superior Court Judge Averil Rothrock also found the nonprofit health system liable for failing to ensure a second meal break was given to workers on shifts longer than 10 hours.
The hospital workers named in the class-action lawsuit against Providence were granted partial summary judgment by Ms. Rothrock, who agreed that timecard records reveal the health system's payroll policy negatively affected employee pay by rounding to the nearest 15 minutes. Many workers entitled to a second meal break also never received one, Law360 reported.
Ms. Rothrock ruled the payroll rounding policy leaned in favor of Providence and did not meet state labor regulations, which require rounding to result in full employee work compensation. Providence's actions resulted in a $7.18 million net loss of employee earnings, or $262.36 per person.
"The expert testimony taken together establishes, over time, a failure to even out that benefits Providence. Thus, Providence utilizes an unlawful rounding system because the rounding system does not average out over a period of time," Ms. Rothrock wrote in a decision obtained by Law360.
Ms. Rothrock also noted 99.4% of eligible shift workers weren't taking their second meal break, according to Providence timecard records and policies.
"Testimony in the record demonstrates that neither caregivers nor their managers are aware that caregivers are entitled to two meal periods," Ms. Rothrock said in the decision.
Ms. Rothrock said the remaining trial issues are damages for both employee classes, one class claiming unlawful time clock rounding and the other class alleging a skipped second meal break, along with an individual plaintiff meal break violation claim.
Both classes feature around 30,000 existing and previous hourly, nonexempt employees who have been with Providence since Sept. 30, 2018. Hospice and home care employees were excluded, the publication reported.
Plaintiffs moved for the summary judgment in September 2023, two years after first filing the lawsuit. Providence pushed back in an Oct. 20 cross motion for summary judgment, suggesting that its rounding practices were neutral, but Ms. Rothrock rejected its argument.
"Instead, the undisputed evidence shows wholesale failure of caregivers to punch out and take second meal breaks according to Providence's policy, and a culture of skipping the second meal break," Ms. Rothrock said in the decision.
Becker's has reached out to Providence for comment regarding the violations.