Kaiser Housekeepers File Multi-Million Dollar Class Action for Unpaid Overtime

Online, August 22, 2013 (Newswire.com) - Kaiser Foundation Hospitals and its related entities face a multi-million-dollar lawsuit claiming that the healthcare giant has routinely failed to pay overtime to a broad class of "on call" workers, including members of the housekeeping staff who clean rooms at the approximately 30 Kaiser hospitals around the state.

Leslie F. Levy, the Oakland attorney representing the two housekeepers who have filed the suit on behalf of their fellow workers commented, "Kaiser would call employees in to pull double shifts in the same day and then not pay them overtime. We call what they were doing wage theft."

Under California's wage and hour laws, employers are required to pay time-and-a-half when employees work more than 8 hours in a day or more than 40 hours in a week. Although some healthcare employees, such as doctors or managers, are exempt from the overtime rules, lower-level workers like housekeepers, call center staff, or clerical staff are entitled to overtime pay.

In addition to Kaiser Foundation Hospitals, the lawsuit names The Permanente Medical Group and Kaiser Foundation Health Plan as defendants under the theory that all of the entities operate together as a joint enterprise. Ms. Levy says that the class of employees covered by the lawsuit is expected to number in the hundreds or thousands and, on that basis, she expects the unpaid wages will reach into the millions.

Kaiser employees who believe they may have been shortchanged because of the company's overtime policies are advised to contact Levy Vinick Burrell Hyams LLP, the law firm representing the plaintiffs in the lawsuit, at (510) 318-7700.

A copy of the complaint filed in this action is available upon request.