A federal judge in Pittsburgh awarded $35.8 million in overtime back pay and damages to 6,000 current and former employees of 15 nursing homes and rehabilitation facilities in Western Pennsylvania, including one in Jackson Township.

Judge William Stickman IV of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania entered the judgment against Comprehensive Healthcare Management Services LLC and CEO Samuel Halper of Pittsburgh on July 22 following a bench trial.

The Grove at Harmony, 191 Evergreen Mill Road, Jackson Township, is among the facilities operated by Comprehensive Healthcare named in the complaint.

The U.S. Department of Labor filed the civil complaint against Comprehensive Healthcare and Halper in November 2018, alleging employees were not paid for working overtime or not paid the correct wages for working overtime in violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938.

Since at least Dec. 14, 2014, the defendants have willfully and repeatedly violated provisions of the act by employing employees for more than 40 hours a week without properly compensating them for the overtime hours, according to the complaint.

The affected employees are registered nurses, licensed practical nurses, certified nursing assistants, therapists, aides, admissions coordinators, clerks, cooks, social services coordinators, housekeepers, maintenance technicians and administrative staff.

The defendants knew employees regularly worked more than 40 hours a week because the overtime hours are recorded in time clock records. In many cases, employees were not paid for hours worked in excess of 40 hours in a week and frequently complained, according to the complaint. The defendants also knew many of their employees frequently worked through their unpaid lunch periods, but made no effort to compensate them for those hours.

When the defendants did pay overtime, they frequently paid employees less than one and one-half times their regular rate of pay, according to the complaint. That practice included not including employees’ nondiscretionary bonuses and shift-differential pay in their regular rate of pay when calculating their overtime pay, according to the complaint.

“Make no mistake, these were not innocent, occasional payroll errors,” Stickman said in his ruling. “Rather, the court finds Halper, CHMS and facility defendants created and intentionally maintained a system through which employees were consistently, systematically and willfully subjected to payroll practices that did not remotely comply with provisions of the Act.”

The award includes $17,902,219 in back wages and the same amount in damages.