Olympic Medical Center Hit With Class Action Lawsuit Alleging Missed Breaks and Shorted Wages

A Port Angeles medical assistant has filed a proposed class action lawsuit against Clallam County Public Hospital District No. 2, the public entity that operates Olympic Medical Center, alleging the district failed to provide legally required meal and rest breaks, shaved compensable minutes off employee time records through a rounding policy, and shortchanged workers on paid sick leave.

The complaint, filed in Clallam County Superior Court on July 21, was brought by DeAna Pierce individually and on behalf of all hourly, nonexempt employees the district employed in Washington at any time from three years before the filing through final judgment. 

The Allegations

According to the complaint, Pierce worked for the district as an hourly, nonexempt medical assistant in Port Angeles during that period.

The lawsuit centers on three categories of alleged violations of Washington wage law.

First, the complaint alleges the district failed to ensure that Pierce and other hourly workers received the meal and rest periods required by the state's Industrial Welfare Act. 

Washington regulations require a paid rest break of at least ten minutes for every four hours worked and prohibit employers from requiring more than five consecutive hours of work without a meal period. 

Pierce alleges she personally experienced missed, late, shortened, and interrupted meal periods, including meal periods during which she was required to remain on duty, and that the district did not pay the additional compensation state law requires when breaks are missed or noncompliant. 

The complaint attributes the alleged violations to common policies and practices, including staffing levels, scheduling, workloads, lack of relief coverage, and inadequate procedures for reporting missed breaks.

Second, the complaint targets the district's timekeeping system. Pierce alleges the district applied a common rounding or adjustment policy to recorded clock-in and clock-out times that did not operate neutrally over time. 

Instead, the lawsuit claims, the rounding systematically worked in the district's favor, removing minutes during which employees performed compensable work and, in some weeks, depriving workers of overtime pay.

Third, the complaint alleges the same rounding practice caused a downstream violation of Washington's Paid Sick Leave law, which requires employers to provide at least one hour of paid sick leave for every 40 hours worked. 

Because the timekeeping system allegedly recorded fewer hours than employees actually worked, the lawsuit claims workers accrued less paid sick leave than they had earned.

The complaint asserts six causes of action under Washington's Industrial Welfare Act, Minimum Wage Act, Wage Payment Act, Wage Rebate Act, and paid sick leave statute and regulations. It asks the court to certify the class, award unpaid wages and corrected sick leave balances, and order the district to change its practices going forward. 

The lawsuit also alleges the district willfully withheld wages, a claim that, if proven, would entitle workers to exemplary damages equal to double the wages withheld under state law, plus attorneys' fees.