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Compass Health $1.1 million class action settlement

March 18, 2014

Grover Beach based Compass Health agreed to pay a $1.1 million settlement in a class action lawsuit for multiple violations of California’s labor code, according to a March 5 agreement.

In the suit filed last year by San Luis Obispo based attorney Hernaldo Baltodano, several former employees claim Compass Health failed to pay overtime and failed to provide required breaks for meals and rest. Because of staffing issues, the employees said that patients were sometimes neglected and did not always receive prescribed medications.

All current and former hourly workers who were employed from March 29, 2009 to Jan. 6, 2014, are required to file a claim before April 22 to receive their share of the settlement, according to the agreement.

The U.S. District Court for the Central District of California granted preliminary approval for the settlement on March 5. At a hearing scheduled for May 12, the court will decide whether to grant final approval.

Compass Health is one of the largest health care providers on the Central Coast. Its holdings include seven skilled nursing facilities – Arroyo Grande Care Center, Bayside Care Center, Danish Care Center, Central Coast Nursing Center, Mission View Health Center, San Luis Transitional Care and Vineyard Hills Health Center as well as two assisted living facilities – Casa de Flores and Wyndham Residence.

Compass Health has denied any wrongdoing.

 


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Based in Grover Beach? No.

Go to Bayside in Morro Bay and read the bulletin board. Compass is based in TEXAS as you will see by numerous bulletins from the main office in Texas.

Having spent many hours at Bayside visiting, I can assure you that most of the workers are quite dedicated and they do work past their off time.

i.e. If you were in charge of a patient with severe dementia (as there are many there) and the patient was in the middle of a horrible breakdown – would you say

Gosh, it’s time for me to go home (or to lunch, or to take a break)?

No, the overtime could run quite a long time to calm this patient and even with assistance.

Go and visit a care center and see what you think.


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Wrong, their headquarters are located in Atlanta, Georgia. Just couldn’t help taking a cheap shot at Texas (you’re only required to capitalize the first letter), now could you?


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Not sure where you’re getting your information. Compass Health Inc. is not based out of Texas or any other state. They are a locally owned corporation, based out of Grover Beach.


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Sounds like a union setup to me. I bet most of these employees were not complaining about missing breaks at the time it was happening. In fact, they probably felt like taking care of the patients was more important, which it is. This is the kind of lawsuit used to pave the ground before setting up a union election. I have never heard anything bad about their labor practices from anyone I know who works/worked for them.


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Wow. All that from a newspaper article? OMG. Clueless. They lost a lawsuit. those don’t happen over dinner. There was evidence pro and con and a ruling. Please do us a favor and keep your opinion which is all it is away from people. How many people would go to you with a grievance? it’s BLATANTLY obvious that your mind has been made up without even considering facts. And, if there WAS a union, this might not have happened. it’s not a one or two time incident. They are going back for YEARS..


go vote for Bush again.


2

All that from a comment? First of all I’m entitled to my opinion. I did not indicate that I knew any facts surrounding the case, and I made that fairly clear. I was just musing based on my experience. We have very open conversations in the CCN comments and it allows us to view stories from different angles.


I’m going to go out on a limb and muse a little bit more though, that you are either one of the people involved in the suit, or a family member of an unhappy employee… or my thoughts would not have upset you so much.


-2

We all know who will really be paying for this. US


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“Compass Health has denied any wrongdoing.”


Then why would they agree to pay a $1.1 million in a settlement for their alleged wrongdoing?


Is it one of those cases where its easier to just pay it and write it off? But, the ramifications are that they now have a distasteful record on file to peruse if anyone does their homework before using one of their facilities. What’s worse, fight it, or roll over?


1

Simple Ted-They are risk-managing the possibility of getting an overly sympathic jury favoring the employees and getting a multimillion judgement against them on top of even getting

punitive damages assessed against them, in addition to the guaranteed $100,000 to 150,000 cost of defending the case in trial whether they win or lose. They are also perhaps taking into account that their insurance policy will cover up to $1,000,000 or so in losses, in which case

they would have to pay for anything above that, which would be $100,000 or so in my example. In this day and age, especially in California where the employer is universally wrong, rolling over and settling is the way to go up to the limits of the insurance policy. And think about how much their premiums will be going up when renewing their insurance next year-double or

triple!


That is a big reason why businesses are leaving California in droves. Simple California

Economics 101.


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Wow..H.R. should be ashamed.


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