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In July, a Washington federal judge approved a $4.4 million class and collective action settlement on behalf of hospital workers who claim their employers were deducting their pay for meal breaks they did not take. In addition to the sum, U.S. District Judge Mary K. Gray also awardedalmost $1.2million in legal fees to represent the two plaintiffs'law firms that represented workers.

Washington Hospital $4.4M Wage Settlement

Class counsel, Schneider Wallace Cottrell Konecky LLP, and local counsel Terrell Marshall Law Group, received 27 percent of the total settlement. There are 1,650 people in the class; each person got approximately $2000on average. Besides the state law claim allowed under RCW 49.52, et seq., accruing in the Washington class is a similar action under theFederal Labor Standards Act brought by 300workers.

The lawsuit was brought in April2019by Myla Kurtz, a registered nurse who had been employed for nearly nine years at the Trios Southridge Hospital. They alleges that their employers including RCCHTrios Health LLC and Lourdes Hospital LLC, regularly docked 30 minutes' pay, for every meal breakrequired of them to staff up.

Although the defendants denied the claims, the agreement was struck at mediation as part of a larger $7.3 million settlement that also resolved a similar Oregon lawsuit. Judge Dimke awarded class counsel a 27percent fee, less than the one-third requested, for various reasons cited with respect to plaintiffs 'attorneys including mistakes that postponed final hearing on approval.

The court also approved a $15,000 incentive fee for lead plaintiff Myla Kurtz and $32,000 in court costs for class counsel. The balance of the funds will go to Working Washington and the Legal Foundation ofWashington, a non-profit organization that provides civil legal assistance to low-income personsthroughout our state.

The title of the case is Kurtz v. RCCH Trios Health LLC, No. 4:19-cv-05049, in the District Court for the Eastern District of Washington.