UnitedHealthcare must pay more than $1 million in back wages and penalties for failing to pay overtime to 479 Hartford employees, reports the Hartford Business Journal.
The workers had been incorrectly classified as "exempt" from the Fair Labor Standards Act, which provides an exemption to both minimum wage and overtime pay for workers who are administrative employees. UnitedHealthcare also denied overtime compensation for more than 40 hours worked in a week, reports Bloomberg.
The U.S. Department of Labor interviewed 90 UnitedHealthcare employees and reviewed records for 21,000 employees. As a result, the federal agency recovered $934,551 in overtime back pay for workers and imposed $104,280 in civil penalties, notes the Hartford Courant.
The investigation also turned up other recordkeeping violations, including that the insurer didn't properly keep records showing the number of hours worked by employees were misclassified as exempt.
UnitedHealth Group says it does not fully agree with the Labor Department's findings, but reclassified some jobs to make employees eligible for overtime pay, Bloomberg notes.
To learn more:
- see the Hartford Business Journal story
- view the Hartford Courant article
- check out the Bloomberg piece
Related Articles:
Universal Health must turn over $1.1M in back pay
Pay practice violations: DOL looks at meal breaks, other overtime issues