HOUSTON – A Houston newborn care center is alleged to have failed to pay its doulas overtime wages.
Chondra Hutchinson filed a complaint individually and on behalf of all others similarly situated on April 19 in the Houston Division of the Southern District of Texas against The Motherhood Center Inc. and Gabriela Gerhart alleging violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act.
According to the complaint, the plaintiff alleges that she regularly worked more than 40 hours in a workweek for defendants without receiving proper overtime compensation during her employment from January 2015 to December 2017. She alleges that instead she was paid a straight time rate for the hours she worked. She alleges she was misclassified as an independent contractor.
The plaintiff holds The Motherhood Center, Inc. and Gerhart responsible because the defendant allegedly failed to pay her overtime compensation at the rate of time-and-a-half of her hourly rate for all hours worked in excess of 40 hours.
The plaintiff requests a trial by jury and seeks unpaid overtime wages, liquidated damages, with interest, attorney fees, costs and all other relief to which they are justly entitled. She is represented by Robert R. Debes Jr. and Dorian Vandenberg-Rodes of Shellist Lazarz Slobin LLP in Houston.
Houston Division of the Southern District of Texas case number 4:18-cv-01231