Despite a 2022 federal court judgment requiring him to pay his employees overtime, Tim Paul – owner of eight Indianapolis-area healthcare services companies – continues to use improper pay practices, the U.S. Department of Labor alleges in its request that a federal court hold the employer in contempt for ignoring the 2022 decision.
In addition to the asking the court to hold Paul and his companies – TPS Caregiving LLC, doing business as Comfort Keepers Home Care and Heal at Home LLC – in contempt, the department alleges ongoing overtime violations in its complaint.
Currently, the department’s Wage and Hour Division estimates more than 700 employees of Paul’s companies from April 2020 to date may have been shortchanged by these practices. It’s unclear how many employees have been denied their full wages.
Filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Indiana in Indianapolis on July 10, 2024, the department’s complaint states the division found Tim Paul manipulated regular pay rates of employees who worked more than 40 hours in a workweek to pay them the equivalent of straight-time rates for all hours worked. The complaint alleges Paul’s efforts to avoid paying required overtime wages began the day after the previous investigative period ended.
“The Department of Labor has asked the U.S. District Court to hold Tim Paul and his companies in contempt for violating the 2022 consent judgment he signed,” explained Regional Solicitor of Labor Christine Heri in Chicago. “When employers violate the FLSA’s pay requirements after resolving a case through a consent judgment, the department will seek to hold them accountable in court.”
The division examined records at TPS Medical Holdings LLC of Indianapolis, which provides management and payroll services for the other companies and home healthcare agencies, TPS Caregiving LLC – operating as Comfort Keepers Home Care, Heal at Home LLC and TPS Medical Holdings LLC – in Indianapolis, and Healing Hands Home Health LLC and Healing Hands Personal Services Agency LLC in Anderson.
Investigators also reviewed records at three now closed home health agencies Paul operated. These are Healing Hands Outpatient Therapy and Rehabilitation Center LLC, which operated in Anderson from April 12, 2020 through Dec. 31, 2021; Community Integration Support Services LLC, which operated from April 12, 2020 through June 1, 2021; and Tranquility Nursing and Rehab LLC, which operated from April 12, 2020 through Oct. 15, 2021, in Indianapolis. While the contempt petition only relates to Paul, TPS Caregiving LLC operating as Comfort Keepers Home Care, and Heal at Home LLC, the complaint alleges violations by them and all of the other companies the division examined.
In addition to its request for a contempt finding, the department has asked the court to require Paul and his companies to hire, at their expense, a third-party accountant to calculate the exact back wages due to the extremely large volume of pay records involved.
Investigators specifically found the employers failed to pay overtime when they did the following:
- Combined hours worked across multiple affiliated companies, as required by the 2022 judgment, but then reduced employees’ hourly pay rate by as much as $2 less per hour, basing the time and one-half overtime premium on the lower rate of pay.
- Had employees sign confusing pay agreements showing they earned more working overtime when, in fact, they earned less than their rightful wages as Paul based overtime on the improperly lowered rate.
- When Medicare or Medicaid approved more care hours per week for individual clients, the employers lowered the employee’s hourly rate of pay, again to reduce the employers’ overtime expense.
In 2021, the division investigated Comfort Keepers, Heal at Home and Tim Paul for violations from April 30, 2019, through April 11, 2020. The department’s Office of the Solicitor obtained a consent judgment in January 2022 that prohibited future violations.
“The Department of Labor will always fight to protect workers’ rights and hold employers accountable for violating federal law,” explained Wage and Hour Division District Director Aaron Loomis in Indianapolis. “We are determined to recover the wages rightfully earned by the workers employed by Tim Paul and his companies.”
Trial attorneys Haley Jenkins and Adam Lubow are litigating the case on behalf of the department’s Office of the Solicitor.
In fiscal year 2023, the Wage and Hour Division recovered more than $31.7 million in back wages for workers in the healthcare industry nationwide and $192,929 for workers in Indiana. Learn more the division’s resources for healthcare workers.