Midwest Nursing Home Chain Sued for Overtime Claims

Trilogy Health Services LLC has been sued for failing to pay nurses and caregivers overtime wages for time spent working over meal breaks. A former nurse claims that the company violated the Fair Labor Standards Act, the Ohio Wage Act and the Ohio Prompt Payment Act.

If successful, the former nurse will represent other direct care workers denied overtime wages under the relevant employment laws in a class action suit.

Case background

Erika Santiago, a Trilogy employee from March 2020 to December 2021, filed a proposed collective and class action suit in March 2023. She worked at two different Ohio Trilogy facilities during this period. Santiago claims that she and other workers were required to take an unpaid 30-minute meal break each day, but they were unable to take the full break because the nursing homes were understaffed. Instead, she and her coworkers were forced to perform work duties during these mandated, unpaid breaks.

Santiago says that because she and her coworkers regularly worked through breaks, they worked in excess of 40 hours and should have been paid overtime for those hours. Her claim requests that she represent an FLSA collective of current and former hourly, non-overtime-exempt direct care employees who experienced similar meal break deductions over the past three years. Her suit requests unpaid overtime waged as well as liquidated damages.

If you’ve been denied meal breaks and have not been compensated appropriately, you may have a claim against your employer. An experienced whistleblower attorney at Kardell Law Group can help—call today.