Notre Dame Academy Accused of Failure to Pay Overtime

A new wage and hour lawsuit was filed on Oct. 11, 2017 in U.S. District Court, District of Massachusetts against Notre Dame Academy in Worcester, Mass. The school’s president and treasurer are also named as defendants.

The heart of the lawsuit concerns the school’s alleged failure to pay overtime to plaintiff Donna D., hired as Plant Manager in 1995. Her day-to-day duties were composed of janitorial work on a daily schedule, and she was also expected to work on occasional weekends to help prepare for and clean up after school events.

In addition to the school’s alleged failure to pay overtime wages for hours worked above and beyond 40 hours in a week, Notre Dame Academy allegedly failed to pay even minimum wages for the extra hours.

Donna says her average work week during the 2014-2015 and 2015-2016 school years was 70 hours per week and involved some weekends and being on-call as needed. The extra hours for the 2016-2017 school year averaged 60 hours per week. The plaintiff’s typical daily schedule was Monday through Friday from 3:30 am to 3:30 pm.

Donna alleges that the school had her classified as “exempt, professional.” Her duties included sweeping and mopping, emptying trashcans, checking on heating and lighting issues, routine plant maintenance, landscaping and vacuuming, and miscellaneous duties as assigned.

She claims that the Academy purposely caused her harm by their failure to pay overtime as well as basic minimum wage for additional hours. Upon her termination, the school allegedly failed to pay her for vacation and sick days as agreed upon in a verbal contract at time of hire.

Donna D. is bringing the following counts against Notre Dame Academy, Barbara B, and Catherine W: Count One –Statutory Violation of 29 U.S.C. 201 et seq., Violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), Regular Wages; Count Two – Statutory Violation of the same FLSA, Minimum Wages; Count Three – Statutory Violation of the same FLSA, Failure to Pay Overtime Wages; Count Five – Statutory Violation of M.G.L. c. 151 1, Minimum Wages; Count Six – Violation of M.G.L. c. 149 148, Failure to Pay Overtime Wages Due Under Federal Law; Count Seven – Violation of Same, Concerning Vacation-Sick Pay.

Donna claims Notre Dame Academy’s failure to pay overtime cost her as much as $864.71 per week for all the weeks she worked there from 2014 to 2017.

The plaintiff is asking for a trial by jury with a favorable judgment on her behalf. She is asking for payment of all specific and non-specific monetary damages such as lost wages, lost vacation and sick time, cost of court fees, miscellaneous litigation fees, attorney’s fees, and interests.

The Failure to Pay Overtime Lawsuit is Case No. 4:17-cv-40133, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts.

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