Did you work as a Director of Rehab (DOR), a Program Manager, or a therapist for Select Rehab in New York state within the past six years? If you were paid hourly, you may be eligible to join a class action case seeking to recover unpaid overtime wages.
In this class action lawsuit, we aim to recover compensation for overtime wages and meal break wages that Select Rehab in New York failed to pay or underpaid. The company set the expectation for therapists that they meet productivity requirements that could not reasonably be met within a typical 40-hour work week. If these requirements were not met, the therapists were threatened with disciplinary action or termination of employment. This lawsuit alleges that this practice represents a wage violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).
Through the lawsuit, we are alleging that the Select Rehab failed to pay overtime wages to certain employees who held jobs related to therapy and Director of Rehab (DOR) positions. The company uses the position titles of Rehab Director and Program Manager for workers who perform the same duties as a DOR. Therapist positions that may be eligible to join this class action lawsuit include:
Occupational Therapists
Certified Occupational Therapy Assistants
Physical Therapists
Physical Therapist Assistants
Speech Language Pathologists.
If you worked for Select Rehab in New York state in one of these types of positions during the past three years (back through the beginning of 2020), you may be eligible to join the lawsuit and get the overtime wages you earned but were never paid.
Damages We Seek
We believe these employees deserve to recover damages, including unpaid or underpaid overtime wages at 1.5 times the employee’s regular rate, liquidated damages, attorney’s fees and costs, and other damages.
Learn More
To learn more details about our legal case against Select Rehab, click here.
DETAILS ABOUT SELECT REHAB NEW YORK’S FAILURE TO PAY NY EMPLOYEES OWED OVERTIME WAGES
CASE: Adrianna Manzella and Michelle Dzula, individually and on behalf of all others similarly situated, as class representatives v. Select Rehabilitation LLC, and Select PT, OT & SLP Rehabilitation New York PLL, d/b/a Select Rehab, Anna Gardina Wolfe, and Michael Capstick, individually. U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. Case no. 1:23-cv-00860. Filed February 1, 2023.
The plaintiffs, Adrianna Manzella and Michelle Dzula, a former therapist and a former Director of Rehab (DOR), have sued the defendants individually and on behalf of all present and former employees similarly situated. Manzella and Dzula allege that they were permitted to suffer to work overtime hours without being compensated as required by New York labor laws and the Federal wage law — the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). They allege the company’s “productivity requirements” and a de facto or unwritten policy required them to not report or under report all work hours. In addition, the defendants failed to accurately and contemporaneously record time and work hours as required by the FLSA and New York labor laws.
The productivity expectation for Dzula and other DORs was that the hours worked and reported had to account for a set percentage of time spent treating patients: 40% (4 hours per day). DORs were expected to also complete their other job duties – scheduling, staffing, reporting, holding meetings, entering notes as a therapist – all within the productivity requirement percentage of billable hours to total hours reported that they worked.
The therapist job duties included reporting and entering notes, treatment plans, discharge and initial evaluations, and attending numerous meetings. The defendants knew it was not possible to complete all these duties in a 40-hour work week, yet they warned employees against reporting any overtime hours worked.
Our complaint alleges that the Director of Rehab position, required work to be performed on weekends and evening hours on call. But all the work requirements cannot be performed within a 40-hour work week. In addition, the DOR also has to perform work as a therapist as well. Dzula routinely worked more than 40 hours per week to meet requirements for work she must complete. She typically worked 50-60 hours per week, but was paid for only 40, denying her pay for all the overtime hours worked, as well as denying her the premium pay at time and a half for all hours worked above 40 in a week.
Further, therapists like Manzella were discouraged from reporting overtime hours because doing so would cause them to fail productivity requirements for the respective work week, and subject them to disciplinary action, including termination of employment. Dzula was also made aware of the productivity requirements and the penalties for failing to meet them. She was aware that the regional manager, Tanya Cooke, fired 6-7 therapists for failure to meet the requirements and warned others the same could happen to them.
We allege this productivity requirement of roughly 92% is known to be an industry standard that employers such as Select Rehab use to cut labor costs, increase profits and intimidate therapists from complaining about not being paid for all work hours. The plaintiffs seek to recover all unpaid overtime wages, plus an equal sum in liquidated damages for all therapists and DORs working for Select Rehab in the preceding 6 years.
Further, as the complaint alleges, therapists and DOR of Select Rehab had to work during the permitted 30-minute meal breaks, the same of which is a violation of New York Labor Laws. The plaintiffs seek recovery of those wages, plus an equal sum in liquidated damages and other penalties.
The Fair Labor Standards Act and New York labor laws require Select Rehab New York to pay all non-exempt, hourly paid employees time and one half (1.5) their regular rate of pay for all overtime hours that any employee works each week, and for all hours it knows are worked, or should know were worked. Here, as plaintiffs Manzella and Dzula explain and contend in the Collective and Class Action lawsuit and complaint, if Select Rehab New York has any reason to know that any employee is working off the clock, or encouraged it, they are legally required to pay all these hours, plus an equal sum in liquidated damages going back a 3 year period.
Common Unfair Practices
At Feldman Legal Group, we represent employees who work for companies that fail to pay overtime wages that the employees earned. They deserve pay for all of their labor, especially when they work beyond the standard 40-hour work week. Our team investigates overtime violations and relentlessly pursues justice for these workers.
The accusations against these companies state that they cheated their employees out of the overtime wages they earned, violating the federal Fair Labor Standards Act and state wages laws. The FLSA says non-exempt employees must receive a premium in payment for hours worked beyond the standard 40-hour week (i.e., overtime hours).
Some companies mislead their employees regarding FLSA by discouraging reporting of overtime and by misclassifying the employees as exempt from overtime payment, which is the type of violation we are alleging against Select Rehab with this lawsuit.
Select Rehab New York’s Violations of the FLSA and New York Labor Laws
Contact us for a no-obligation discussion if you have experienced any unfair overtime pay calculation as an employee of Select Rehab New York. We want to hear about your work experience with this company in a 10-to-15-minute phone call.
Our Investigation
As we investigate the alleged FLSA wage violations and violations of New York labor laws by Select Rehab New York, we want to speak with employees who experienced these violations. We want to speak with you to further verify the facts about the company’s illegal practices regarding overtime pay. You are under no obligation to join the lawsuit after speaking with us.
HAVE YOU WORKED AS A DOR OR THERAPIST AT SELECT REHAB NEW YORK?
If you have information regarding the scheme at Select Rehab to deny paying overtime to deserving employees, the employment attorneys at Feldman Legal Group want to speak with you about what happened.
If you believe Select Rehab did not pay the overtime wages that you deserved, please contact us. We will set up a convenient time to speak with you about your experience.
