DALLAS – A nurse has been granted the right to a conditional class action suit against Methodist Dallas Medical Center Auxiliary, et al. over interrupted meal breaks that allegedly resulted in overtime work without pay.
The nurse, Robert Straka, filed a lawsuit against Methodist claiming its meal break policy did not follow the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) regarding overtime payments.
According to the April 3 opinion filed by Dallas Division of the Northern District of Texas Judge Jane J. Boyle, Straka claimed he, along with several other nurses, were not paid for a 30-minute meal break when they worked a 6.5-hour shift.
According to the opinion, while the nurses were not required to clock out for their meal breaks, Methodist Dallas Medical Center Auxiliary employed both an automatic deduction system and an attestation system for tracking the meal periods. Both systems were designed to allow the nurses to report whether they had received an uninterrupted meal break, which would be deducted from their work hours. According to Straka, his meal breaks were interrupted on a constant basis and Methodist Dallas Medical Center’s policies for this break time violate the FLSA.
In his suit, Straka claims he is not alone in the FLSA violations and that some 4,500 nurses are affected by the policies at several locations in the Methodist system. Methodist argued that all the nurses are not “similarly situated” as there are several differences among departments that they work in, the opinion states.
Boyle ruled in favor of Straka with the condition that only Methodist’s Dallas, Charlton and Mansfield health care facilities be considered for the class action suit. Methodist was also ordered to provide employee information of all nurses that could be considered class members and affected by the suit.
A 60-day opt-in period would follow the receipt of the employees’ information, allowing all affected nurses to opt-in to the suit with written consent.
According to the court opinion, Straka already had seven nurses’ consent to be included as class members in the suit.