Physical Therapist Overtime Pay Allegedly Denied, Lawsuit Filed

On Dec. 20, 2018, a lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, Southern Division concerning the denial of overtime pay.

The plaintiff—Kimberly B.—has registered her legal complaint as both an individual and class action in which other professionals denied physical therapist overtime pay can participate.

The named defendant in this case in South County Orthopedic Specialists (SCOS) which supposedly offers full-service care in a network of clinics and centers dedicated to physical therapy throughout the region of Southern California.

Kimberly claims that by denying the physical therapist overtime pay, the company has been in deliberate contradiction to the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), California Labor Code (CLC), California Industrial Welfare Commission (CIWC), and aspects of the California Business and Professions Code (CBPC).

Kimberly B.’s lawsuit says that the defendant has a regular practice of misclassifying licensed physical therapists (LPTs) as ‘exempt’ employees who do not have the right under federal law to claim overtime wages.

As indicated in the lawsuit narrative, this ‘exempt’ status—according to the FLSA–can only be conferred on an employee that is salaried and makes above $455 a week minimum. Nevertheless, SCOS would purportedly refer to the LPTs as hourly professionals that were somehow not entitled to overtime pay.

SCOS would allegedly pay its employees their straight hourly wage regardless of whether they worked more than eight hours in a given shift or more than 40 hours in a seven-day consecutive stretch, denying physical therapist overtime pay, according to the legal claim.

Kimberly’s lawsuit claims that the CLC provides the CIWC with the right to establish an exemption from overtime wages if the employee routinely exercises independent judgment and authority in their duties and makes no less than double the minimum wage as established for full-time employment.

The lawsuit also notes that the CLC additionally adds that such exemption is conferred upon licensed physicians and surgeons whose wages are $55 per hour or greater.

The complainant claims that physical therapy professionals such as herself were routinely misclassified by SCOS and denied physical therapist overtime pay despite not meeting the exempt federal or state requirements.

Kimberly was purportedly employed at the Laguna Woods, Calif. location for slightly under ten years as an LPT from August 2007 to March 2016.

On average, the plaintiff says she worked more than eight hours in a day and more than 40 hours each seven-day period accruing significant physical therapist overtime pay which was not forthcoming. According to the lawsuit, Kimberly was most recently paid at the hourly rate of $37.25.

In addition to filing her complaint on her own behalf, the class action part of her complaint applies to LPTs denied physical therapist overtime pay from SCOS within the last three years from the date of filing of the lawsuit. These employees can be current or former and have current or former licensure in the profession.

The Physical Therapist Overtime Pay Lawsuit is Case No. 8:18-cv-02256 in U.S. District Court for the Central District of California.

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