A major class action lawsuit against a Renton, Wash., health system has resulted in a huge judgment on behalf of employees who claimed the organization underpaid them for years.
As a result of the court decision, Providence Health & Services must pay 33,000 hourly employees back wages. In a complaint first filed in 2021, the plaintiffs said they were victims of “an antiquated, uniform time clock rounding policy” that systematically underpaid them by design, often rounding down the total number of hours worked.
The loss of wages, the court ruled, totaled over $98 million. However, because the King Superior Court found the violations to be willful, Washington state law doubles the fine for punitive damages. The total judgment to workers is expected to exceed $200 million.
In the court filing, the employees said they were also subjected to a mandatory deduction of pay for meal breaks they didn’t take. Further, those who worked more than 10.5 hours were denied a second meal required by law, but still had wages for two meals deducted from their checks.
The workers claim Providence Health did not have them punching in and out for work time as they should, and their checks often did not accurately reflect the total number of hours worked.
The entire trial lasted eight days, and the final decision from the court was made late last week.
Providence Health is a not-for-profit Catholic health system that operates in seven states. They are the largest healthcare provider in the state of Washington.
Chad is an award-winning writer and editor with over 15 years of experience working in media. He has a decade-long professional background in healthcare, working as a writer and in public relations.