Kent Hospital Back Wages Paid: $1.9M to 853 Staff

WARWICK, RI — Care New England has agreed to pay $1.9 million in Kent Hospital back wages/damages to 853 health care workers not properly compensated for working through their breaks during the COVID-19 pandemic, the U.S. Department of Labor reports.

The department announced the administrative settlement with the CNE facility, Rhode Island’s second largest hospital, Jan. 3. The Hartford District Office of the department’s Wage and Hour Division found Kent County Memorial Hospital automatically deducted 30-minute breaks from hours employees worked even though staffing needs kept them from taking those breaks. The division found employees in the emergency room and other departments worked more than 40 hours in a work week but weren’t properly compensated when they worked through their breaks.

Kent Hospital Back Wages Pay Due Staff Putting Their Needs Second

“The Wage and Hour Division is eager to return the $1.9 million in Kent Hospital back wages and liquidated damages we recovered to the workers who put their needs second and delivered essential care to the many people in Rhode Island who suffered during the pandemic,” said Wage and Hour Administrator Jessica Looman. “An administrative resolution like this allows affected workers to collect their hard-earned wages promptly.”

The division recovered $100,000 in civil money penalties from the hospital and Care New England Health System given the willful nature of the violations. As part of the settlement, which spans from July 30, 2019, through Dec. 31, 2022, the hospital has agreed to comply with the Fair Labor Standards Act and has made substantial changes in their timekeeping practices to prevent future violations of federal recordkeeping requirements.

Raina Smith, senior director of PR, media relations, communications & government affairs, said the hospital’s past policy required an employee to notify their manager if they worked through the break, and for the hospital to manually add the meal break time back into the payroll system.

“In 2023, we automated the process to ensure that every meal break is appropriately recorded. Employees now personally verify each day at the time clocks whether they took a meal break or should instead receive payment for that time. This information is automatically entered into the payroll system,” Smith replied when asked about the settlment.

“Kent Hospital is fully committed to ensuring that our employees receive a meal break or payment if they work through the break,” Smith said.

Department of Labor recovered millions for workers in 2024

In fiscal year 2024, the Wage and Hour Division concluded 2,376 investigations in healthcare industries,including the Kent Hospital back wages  case.

These investigations recovered more than $37 million in back wages for nearly 30,000 workers nationwide

Learn more about the Wage and Hour Division, including a search tool to use if you think you may be owed back wages collected by the division. Workers and employers can call the division confidentially with questions – regardless of immigration status – and the division can speak with callers in more than 200 languages through the agency’s toll-free helpline at 866-4US-WAGE (487-9243). Download the agency’s Timesheet App for iOS and Android devices – available in English and Spanish – to ensure hours and pay are accurate.