The U.S. Department of Labor is suing Aspen Nursing Services for allegedly violating the Fair Labor Standards Act. The department is asking a federal court in Louisville to award 22 employees back wages for the past two years amounting to $256,292.13 plus an equal amount in liquidated damages.  The lawsuit follows an investigation by the department’s Wage and Hour Division alleging that, since October 2008, the company has failed to pay employees a minimum wage hourly rate, and employees working more than 40 hours in a week have not been paid one and one-half times their regular rates of pay for overtime hours.

“These low-wage workers perform an important and underappreciated service, and they deserve all the wages due to them as required by the FLSA,” said Oliver Peebles III, regional administrator for the Wage and Hour Division office in Atlanta, Ga.

The suit has been filed by the department’s Office of the Solicitor in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Kentucky, Louisville Division.  Aspen Nursing Services, doing business as Aspen Community Living, provides home health aides to care for individuals with developmental and physical disabilities throughout Kentucky and Ohio. (click on link to read full story)