Michigan home health care provider ordered to pay $90K in back pay ruling

 A Fenton-based home health care company has been ordered to pay more than $90,000 in back pay and damages to 23 workers who were denied overtime pay.

U.S. District Judge Victoria Roberts last month found Independent Home Care of Michigan LLC and its owners Mary Clark and Kathryn Flick liable for $93,331, the U.S. Labor Department said in a news release Wednesday.

The company had challenged the findings of an investigation by the Department of Labor Wage and Hour Division that found the company violated the Home Health Care Final Rule of 2013  by not paying overtime wages for employees who worked more than 40 hours a week from Jan. 23, 2018, through June 1, 2019.

Investigators also found the company failed to keep accurate records of hours worked and rates of pay for work performed in violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act.

Clark, a nurse, founded the company in July 2000 and her daughter, Flick, became the company’s co-owner a year later, according to the Labor Department release.

The company contracts for community living support and respite services to people with mental, intellectual and developmental disabilities in Genesee County and gets more than 93% of its funding through Medicare.