Brookdale Senior Living (NYSE: BKD) has another potential class action lawsuit on its hands.
Brookdale’s staffing practices recently came under fire in a lawsuit filed against the company in Florida. Now, the nation’s largest senior living provider is being accused of failing to pay its workers overtime in California.
Brookdale does not comment on pending litigation as a matter of policy, spokeswoman Heather Hunter told Senior Housing News earlier this week.
Geneflor Sacro, a former registered nurse supervisor at Brookdale Camarillo in Camarillo, California, filed a complaint against the senior living behemoth in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California on April 6.
Sacro worked at the Camarillo community from March 3, 2015, to June 2, 2016, the complaint says. At the time, the community was called Emeritus at Camarillo.
When Sacro worked for Brookdale, non-exempt nurses, including Sacro, were told to work overtime only on pre-approved occasions, the complaint says. Otherwise, Brookdale maintained a “strict policy against unscheduled overtime,” the complaint alleges.
Still, due to nurses’ “excessive workloads,” non-exempt nurses like Sacro were regularly made to clock-out at the scheduled end of their eight-hour shift, but then continue to work. Sacro and other nurses “regularly worked between 10 and 14 hours per shift,” the complaint says, and they were often denied meal periods mandated by California law.
Zero wages were paid to Sacro and other nurses for the work they were compelled to perform off-the-clock during meal periods and after the conclusion of their scheduled shifts, the complaint adds.
With the lawsuit, Sacro is seeking unpaid wages and compensation, injunctions enjoining the defendants from continuing “unfair and unlawful business practices,” statutory penalties, reasonable attorneys’ fees and costs, interest accrued on damages and penalties, and other relief as the court deems just and proper.
Sacro is seeking class action status for her lawsuit; the complaint states there could be more than 200 potential class members of other workers in its California properties.
Written by Mary Kate Nelson
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