Healthcare Employee Wage and Hour Collective Claims: Growing Litigation Threat

Description

Wage and hour actions targeting the health care industry have exploded recently, exposing hospitals to expensive and time consuming litigation. This trend is expected to continue through 2010. A recent $9 million settlement with a New York hospital illustrates the magnitude of this new threat.

Plaintiffs’ attorneys are aggressively recruiting potential plaintiffs for these actions. Law firms have contacted healthcare employees directly to encourage lawsuits and have set up websites touting significant settlements and highlighting hospitals under investigation for wage and hour violations.

The surge in collective and class claims targeting the healthcare industry requires hospitals to develop innovative defenses against the suits. Counsel for hospitals must also craft effective settlement strategies to minimize the time and expense of litigation.

Listen as our panel of wage and hour attorneys with experience representing healthcare entities discusses recent developments in wage and hour actions against hospitals and other healthcare providers; explains areas most frequently targeted for non-compliance; and provides strategies for avoiding, defending and settling wage and hour collective and class claims.

Outline

1. Current trends
   1. Aggressive plaintiffs’ attorneys
   2. Heightened DOL enforcement
   3. Lawsuits filed
   4. Collective actions versus class actions
2. Targeted areas
   1. Automatic meal break deductions
   2. Unauthorized hours worked
   3. On-call time
   4. Travel time
   5. Home health care
   6. Employee misclassification
   7. Rate of pay and shift differentials
3. Strategies to avoid, defend and settle claims
   1. Audit and update existing wage and hour policies, procedures and practices
   2. Training for employees and managers
   3. Defense strategies
   4. Settlement strategies

Benefits

The panel will review these and other key questions:

• What are the bases for the recent surge in FLSA and state law collective and class claims in the healthcare industry — and how are hospital attorneys responding?
• What legal and practical steps should healthcare providers take to minimize the likelihood of lawsuits alleging wage and hour violations?
• What are the key considerations for healthcare counsel when structuring a settlement to meet their clients' best interests and obtain court approval?

Webinar/Teleconference

Strafford webinars/teleconferences offer several options for participation: online viewing of speaker-controlled PowerPoint presentations with audio via computer speakers or via phone; or audio only via telephone (download speaker handouts prior to the program).  Please note that our webinars do not feature videos of the presenters.

CLE Credit

Strafford's live seminars qualify for CLE in every state that accredits webinars. They offer you a high quality, cost effective, and convenient CLE option, with no lost travel time or expenses.

More Details >

Our Guarantee

Strafford webinars and teleconferences are backed by our 100% Unconditional Money-Back Guarantee: if you are not satisfied with any of our products, simply let us know and get a full refund. For more information regarding complaints and refunds, please contact us at 1-800-926-7926 ext 10.