Similar claims have been made against hospitals in Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Boston, Syracuse, Buffalo and Rochester in lawsuits filed recently by the Rochester, N.Y.-based law firm of Thomas and Solomon.
The Labor Department’s investigation of SSM found that back wages were due to 4,007 nurses in the hospital system, which has 22,700 employees at 15 hospitals and two nursing homes in four states.
SSM officials told the St. Louis Business Journal that some nurses carried hospital-provided wireless phones on meal breaks and took calls without reporting the worktime, even though SSM policy bars carrying phones on meal breaks.
Working through unpaid lunch breaks has become part of the hospital culture and employees are reluctant to protest it, according to an official at the Pennsylvania Association of Staff Nurses and Allied Professionals when commenting on the lawsuit Thomas and Solomon filed against Philadelphia hospitals last month.
Read the U.S. Department of Labor’s release on SSM Health Care.
