Maxim Healthcare Class Action: Is It Fair to Expect Work for Free?

Cleveland, OHWhile it is up to the lawyers to decide the arguments to be used in a Maxim HealthCare Services employment class action lawsuit, a worthy candidate for argument would be to remind a defendant that we live in a democracy. Employers who fail to properly pay their employees for work performed, it could be argued, are not conducting themselves with true democratic values and fairness at heart.

An employee/employer relationship is a partnership, after all. One needs the other, and one provides a valued service to the other. An employee has a responsibility to provide good service, accurate work and reliable attendance or risk penalties and ultimately, the privilege of working there in the first place.

For the employer, the responsibility is to pay that employee timely and properly for good work performed.

In the case of Jasmine Lawrence, the lead plaintiff in a proposed Maxim Healthcare Services overtime class action lawsuit, the pay part of that relationship allegedly didn't happen.

The lawsuit constitutes a disagreement between the two parties??"and the lawsuit will help determine who has the correct interpretation of the law. However, beyond that resides the misguided position on the part of some employers that they can somehow hold sway over the lives of their employees beyond the requisite work week.

In her lawsuit, Lawrence alleges that she worked as many as 70 hours in a single week (or 30 extra hours) but was not paid overtime. A health care worker qualified to undertake patient care; Lawrence alleges that she often spent the majority of her week performing basic housekeeping duties at the facility where she was employed.

The Maxim HealthCare Services employment class action lawsuit appears to hinge on whether, or not Lawrence's stated position as health care worker exempts her from overtime provisions??"or whether the nature of the extra housekeeping duties she performed should have qualified her for overtime based on the nature of the work performed, as opposed to her primary job classification. And was she classified as an employee of Maxim, or an independent contractor?

The class action lawsuit, for which Lawrence serves as lead plaintiff, alleges that Maxim Healthcare Services Inc. violated the Ohio Minimum Fair Wage Standards Act (OMFWSA).

While there are several job classifications that are legally exempt from overtime, some employers attempt to skirt around the rules by incorrectly classifying employees into exempt categories??"sometimes out of ignorance or mismanagement, but often times borne from an attempt to save money and cut costs by not paying employees their due. Employers sometimes misclassify employees as independent contractors for the same reason??"to skirt around the requirement to pay overtime.

Provisions in state statutes as well as nationally through the Fair Labor Standards Act provide employees with safeguards against being taken advantage of by an employer. Under the Act, a standard workweek is 40 hours??"a length of time an employee can reasonably dedicate to a job while maintaining family responsibilities and overall good health. Overtime, as required, is usually at the discretion of the employee. Provided the employee works in a job that qualifies, the employee should be paid overtime for any hours worked in a standard work week above 40, or any day beyond five out of 7 days.

Lawrence's Maxim HealthCare Services employment class action lawsuit aims to uphold that requirement.