HOUSTON – A home health care company has lost a Texas Payday Act wage appeal over lost wages that were never paid to a former employee.
On Oct. 18, the 14th Court of Appeals affirmed a ruling from the Texas Workforce Commission that required Evangel Healthcare Charities Inc. to pay former employee Jeneba Isha Bangura owed wages.
"...The trial court did not err in granting the TWC and Bangura’s joint motion for summary judgment. We therefore overrule Evangel’s issues and affirm the trial court’s judgment," the ruling states.
Evangel, a home health care business that hires nurses with various qualifications to attend to patients at their homes, employed licensed vocational nurse Bangura to work as a pediatric nurse from March 2011 to September 2013, according to the ruling. However, in October 2013, Bangura filed a claim against Evangel with the Texas Workforce Commission (TWC) claiming that some $8,640 in wages was owed under the Texas Payday Act.
In its most-recent appeal, Evangel argued that the Texas Workforce Commission's decision that awarded Bangura the lost wages violates the Texas Payday Act, adding that Bangura failed to provide enough substantial evidence in the matter.
Evangel argued that TWC "'meddled with Evangel’s records because the signed time [sheet] is part of the accurate record requested of Bangura that she could not produce,'” the ruling states.
However, the court found that "the time sheets that were provided to the TWC and included in the summary judgment record reflect the dates, times and total hours worked by Bangura, as well as the signatures of both Bangura and the patient’s guardian on forms provided by Evangel," according to the ruling.
The company also argued that "Bangura 'engaged in the fraud of fabricating her time sheets and records for wages' while simultaneously working full time for six other employers," according to the ruling.
The court overruled this claim, saying that Evangel did not have enough substantial evidence to support it.