A groundbreaking wage and hour class action seeking overtime wages for more than 1,200 home health care workers.
This class action alleges that Stella Orton—a company that places home health aides and other health care workers with patients in need of in-home care—has been illegally withholding wages from over 1,200 workers throughout New York for several years.
Stella Orton is one of many home care companies that have grown dramatically over the past thirty years. There are now approximately 2 million home care workers in the United States providing invaluable care to the individuals they assist and support which allows the clients to live independently in their homes and communities rather than in nursing facilities. On a daily basis home care workers perform essential services such as assisting with transportation, preparing meals, house cleaning, personal hygiene, and other health and wellness related activities.
Despite their increasingly vital role, however, home care workers are consistently some of the lowest paid service industry employees, with incomes routinely averaging less than $20,000 a year. Paradoxically, many home care workers find themselves unable to care for their own families due to their employers’ frequent failure to comply with state and federal labor laws.
At Stella Orton, workers regularly put in very long hours, and are thus well-deserving of overtime pay. Yet not only have their lawfully mandated wages never materialized, but Stella Orton’s workers have also found themselves waiting inordinately long for their hard earned pay.
By denying its employees their overtime wages, and also failing to pay even standard wages in a timely manner, Stella Orton has considerably boosted its bottom line. Since its founding in 1982, the company has expanded rapidly and is now a major player in New York’s home health care market. In pursuing justice for Stella Orton’s home care workers, our goal is to address the imbalance of power between this large and ever-growing company and the workers at the heart of its success.
The lawsuit seeks to recover overtime pay, liquidated damages, and interest for all home health care workers employed by Stella Orton.
