Memorial Health System has agreed to resolve claims its break policies caused employees to work off the clock with a $2.5 million settlement. The settlement terms will benefit both current and former employees of Memorial Health System employed on an hourly wage who were responsible for direct patient care and were subjected to the automatic meal deduction policy of the company between 29th October 2012 and 31st December 2018.
Settlement Website: MemorialHealthSystemsSettlement.com
Objection Deadline: 07/06/2022
Exclusion Deadline: 07/06/2022
Claim Form: https://www.memorialhealthsystemssettlement.com/Login
Deadline for Submitting Claim Form: 08/05/2022
Final Hearing Date: 08/23/2022
Settlement Amount: $2.5 million
Potential Claim Amount: Variable
Proof of Purchase: Not applicable
Memorial Health System is an Illinois-based health system employing more than 6700 staff members who serve thousands of patients yearly. According to its website, the health system treats more than 125000 patients yearly across its four emergency departments and offers its services to more patients through in and outpatient visits.
A class-action lawsuit has been filed against Memorial Health System and other defendants accusing them of deducting 30 minutes from the employee shifts as a 30-minute refreshment break regardless of whether they took an uninterrupted break. The plaintiffs have argued that they don’t always get uninterrupted breaks and the same shouldn’t have been deducted from their shifts. Thus, the break policy of Memorial Health System allegedly forced employees to work off the clock.
The policies of the health system violated various state and federal wage and hour laws under which businesses are required to remunerate their workers for the work completed by them. Plaintiffs have sought overtime wages from Memorial Health System. Though the defendants haven’t admitted any wrongdoing, they have agreed to fund the $2.5 million class-action settlement to resolve all allegations brought against them.
Class members are eligible for cash payment under the terms of the settlement. The payment disbursed to each class member will depend on the number of shifts worked by them during the class period. As per the settlement agreement, each applicable shift will result in one “point” and the total points accumulated by each class member will be multiplied by $1.19 to compute the payment amounts.
One-half of the settlement payment will be treated as liquidated damages while the other half will be treated as unpaid wages for tax computations. Class members are under obligation for paying taxes on these payments. Unclaimed settlement funds will be reverted to the defendants as per the settlement agreement.