New Lawsuit Claims City Contractor Paid Workers as Little as $3.61 an Hour
A nationwide health services contractor who recently secured an $85 million contract with the District has denied minimum wages to hundreds of non-emergency medical transportation drivers who help Medicaid participants access important health services, a lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court this morning alleges.
Medical Transportation Management Inc., a St. Louis-based company that operates in the District and 27 states, paid some of its local drivers as little as $3.61 an hour, the suit claims.
MTM not only denied hundreds of D.C. workers living wages, but it also regularly failed to pay them overtime for work over 40 hours per week, according to the lawsuit, jointly filed by Public Citizen Litigation Group, an arm of Public Citizen Foundation, and a law firm.
The lawyers say Leo Franklin was required to work 70 hours per week, often without a lunch break, under threat of discipline, lost wages, and even firing if he declined to transport an extra client trip. Franklin and hundreds of others were paid a flat rate of as little as $325 per week in violation of federal and D.C. law, the suit states. He and many of his colleagues never received overtime pay either.
Read more: http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/news/loose-lips/article/20867449/new-lawsuit-claims-city-contractor-paid-workers-as-little-as-361-an-hour