Workers at Seattle-area hospital system Swedish Health Services say the employer should pay roughly $126 million to resolve alleged wage violations, arguing that improper time-rounding practices and missed meal breaks resulted in years of unpaid wages.
In a renewed motion for summary judgment filed Friday in Washington state court, employees told the court that updated damages calculations support their claim after a judge previously found that Swedish willfully violated state wage laws.
“There is no dispute of fact that the revised damages calculations represent a reasonable basis for estimating the class’s wage losses,” the workers said, noting that their experts adjusted the figures to account for overtime credits ordered by the court last fall.
King County Superior Court Judge Nicole Gaines Phelps ruled in April that Swedish Health Services broke state law by rounding employee work time to the nearest 15-minute increment and by failing to provide a second meal break to employees working shifts longer than 10 hours.
The court declined to award damages outright in November, finding that Swedish was entitled to credit for excess overtime payments related to the rounding claim. The judge also faulted the workers’ initial damages model for not fully addressing an overtime calculation method contained in the collective bargaining agreement known as the 08-80 rule.
Under that rule, employees earn daily overtime for work exceeding eight hours in a day, but biweekly overtime only applies after 80 hours worked in a two-week period. That approach differs from the more common 08-40 rule, which triggers overtime after eight hours in a day or 40 hours in a week.
In their latest filing, the workers said their expert recalculated damages by identifying excess overtime paid under alternative rules and deducting those amounts accordingly. They estimate overtime offsets of about $300,000 if credits are limited to the same workweek, or roughly $750,000 if offsets are applied across an employee’s full period of employment.
Even with those adjustments, the workers argue that damages would increase if overtime were calculated strictly under the collective bargaining agreement rather than statutory rules.
“Plaintiffs seek statutory overtime remedies, not contractual ones,” the motion states, adding that because the contractual remedies would be greater, Swedish cannot dispute that employees are owed at least the amounts claimed.
According to the filing, total damages include nearly $6 million tied to time rounding, about $57 million related to missed second meal breaks, and approximately $63 million in liquidated damages.
The class action was filed in 2021 by former diagnostic imaging technician Yolanda Callister and followed similar litigation involving affiliated healthcare provider Providence Health and Services.
A trial is scheduled to begin in March.
Representatives for Swedish Health Services and counsel for the workers did not respond to requests for comment Tuesday.
The workers are represented by Daniel F. Johnson and Cynthia J. Heidelberg of Breskin Johnson and Townsend PLLC, Donald W. Heyrich, Jason A. Rittereiser, Rachel M. Emens, and Joseph W. Wright of HKM Employment Attorneys LLP, and Peter D. Stutheit of Stutheit Kalin LLC.
Swedish Health Services is represented by Paula Lehmann, Melissa Mordy, Meg A. Burnham, and Kathryn S. Rosen of Davis Wright Tremaine LLP.
The case is Yolanda Callister et al. v. Swedish Health Services et al., case number 21-2-16148-7, in King County Superior Court.
