Sitrin Unpaid Wages Lawsuit: Was Your Overtime Classified as “Retro” Pay?

A lawsuit has been filed against Charles T. Sitrin Health Care Center, which provides medical rehabilitation, assisted living and long-term residential care in New Hartford, New York, alleging violations of both federal and state labor laws.

Specifically, the lawsuit claims Sitrin Health Care Center employs a “willful and intentional scheme” in which the healthcare provider pays straight time instead of time-and-a-half for overtime hours, resulting in illegal underpayment to workers.

Now, attorneys are looking for current and former Sitrin Health Care Center employees to come forward and help strengthen the litigation, which looks to recover unpaid wages and more.

What Does the Sitrin Overtime Lawsuit Say, Exactly?

The proposed class and collective action lawsuit was filed by a woman who worked simultaneously as a receptionist and companion care aide for Sitrin Health Care Center between 2021 and 2023.

According to the lawsuit, the plaintiff and other hourly employees regularly put in more than 40 hours per week but were denied overtime pay due to a “widely applicable, illegal pay practice.” The suit claims that instead of paying time-and-a-half wages for overtime hours, Sitrin Health Care Center instead opted to provide “straight time” pay, in violation of federal and state labor laws.

For instance, in one week in which the woman worked 51.82 hours, her nearly 12 hours of overtime were classified as “retro pay” and paid at her straight-time rate—instead of the legally required time-and-a-half rate—shorting her more than $140 for the week, the Sitrin unpaid wages lawsuit says.   

The lawsuit further claims that Sitrin Health Care Center fails to pay sick time at the correct rates. Under New York sick leave laws, workers must be compensated at their normal pay rates for use of paid sick leave. Workers who are paid at more than one rate must be compensated for sick leave using the “weighted average” of those rates. The plaintiff alleges she was illegally paid at her lower receptionist rate for her sick time despite working in both positions when the leave was taken.

Sitrin Health Care Center is also facing claims that it failed to provide accurate wage statements. Additionally, attorneys working with ClassAction.org are investigating whether employees are working off the clock without pay, as all time spent working must be compensated regardless of whether the worker is clocked in.

How Should Overtime Be Paid?

Under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), most employees are entitled to overtime pay for hours worked in excess of 40 in a workweek at a rate of at least time-and-a-half their regular rate. A worker’s regular rate is calculated by dividing their total pay in any workweek (with certain limited exclusions) by the total number of hours worked. In the simplest example, a worker who is paid an hourly rate of $20 and receives no other form of eligible compensation in a workweek should receive overtime at $30 per hour ($20 x 1.5).  

Employers cannot “average” workweeks to avoid paying overtime (e.g., averaging a 50-hour workweek with a 30-hour workweek to avoid paying overtime in the 50-hour week) and cannot enact internal policies that circumvent state and federal law.

When the plaintiff in the Sitrin unpaid wages lawsuit approached her employer about the overtime issue, she was allegedly given the excuse that she would not be given time-and-a-half overtime pay because her hourly rate as a companion care aide was already higher than her receptionist hourly rate—reasoning that does not compute with how overtime law actually works.  

How Could a Sitrin Wage Lawsuit Help?

If successful, a lawsuit could help provide workers with any unpaid wages for overtime and/or sick leave and force the healthcare provider to make certain changes to its pay practices.

Sitrin Health Care Center Employees: What You Can Do

Before commenting, please review our comment policy.