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A Detroit hospital network automatically deducts 30-minute unpaid meal breaks from nurses' and technicians' pay regardless of whether they were actually relieved from their work duties, a former employee said in a proposed class and collective action filed in Michigan federal court.

In a complaint filed Tuesday, Heather Lane said that Detroit Medical Center Receiving Hospital Premier Clinical Co-Management Services LLC required nurses and technicians to keep working through their meal breaks, but still deducted 30 unpaid minutes from each shift.

Detroit Hospital Hit With Meal-Break Lawsuit : Allegations of Missed Meal Breaks

"Nurses and technicians frequently missed meal periods, and even when they attempted to eat, their meal periods were regularly interrupted by work demands," Lane said.

Lane worked as a nurse at Detroit Medical Center intermittently, first from 2010 to 2017 and then from 2021 to 2023, and was paid on an hourly basis, according to the complaint.

Detroit Hospital Hit With Meal-Break Lawsuit : Violation of Labor Laws

Detroit Medical Center's policy of automatically deducting 30-minute unpaid meal breaks from workers' pay resulted in unpaid overtime when nurses and technicians worked more than 40 hours per week, Lane said. The hospital's practices constituted a violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) and the Portal-to-Portal Act, she added.

The FLSA requires employers to pay workers time and a half their regular rate of pay when they work more than 40 hours per week. Under the Portal-to-Portal Act, which amended the FLSA, employers don't owe pay for time workers spend traveling to and from the place of principal work activities or for time they spend on preliminary or postliminary activities.

Seeking Class and Collective Action

Lane seeks to represent a collective under the FLSA of all current and former nurses and technicians who did not receive overtime as a result of Detroit Medical Center's alleged unlawful policies in the past three years. She also aims to represent a class under state law of all current and former nurses and technicians who did not receive straight-time pay when they worked fewer than 40 hours per week in the past six years.

Legal Representation

Lane is represented by Ricardo J. Prieto and Melinda Arbuckle of the Wage and Hour Firm and by David M. Blanchard of Blanchard & Walker PLLC. Counsel information for Detroit Medical Center was not available Wednesday. Representatives of the parties did not immediately respond to requests for comment.