Tegria Software Employees allege 80-hour Weeks without Overtime

Santa Clara, CAFormer Tegria workers have filed a proposed class and collective action claiming the company, which provides consulting and technology services to healthcare clients, failed to pay overtime to consultants who “routinely” worked over 40 hours and often more than 80 hours per week, a violation of the federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).

Plaintiffs Ricardo Chery, Marcus McFarland and Jasmine Siggers worked as consultants for Tegria. They provided training and support to hospitals in states such as New York, California, Maine and Illinois at various times between 2018 and 2022, as they implemented new software to perform electronic record keeping. According to the lawsuit, the three plaintiffs:

• Were paid solely on an hourly basis
• Were paid only for the time they billed to the end client.
• Routinely worked in excess of 40 hours a week (in fact, typically in excess of 80 hours per week)
• Project assignments frequently required them to work 12 hours a day, 7 days a week.
• Were never paid time and a half for work performed for the Defendant over 40 hours per week.

The lawsuit notes that Tegria was aware that its consultants worked overtime as indicated on its payroll records. There is an overtime exemption under the FLSA and in states such as California for employees in highly skilled computer-related jobs, but plaintiffs state that, as consultants, they simply trained hospital staff in new software, therefore they were not exempt from federal overtime wage requirements. The plaintiffs claim that Tegria knew their project assignments often meant working “12 hours a day, 7 days a week,” but Tegria only paid a “straight hourly rate” despite knowing their consultants qualify for overtime pay as per FLSA standards.

FLSA Violations

Tegria Holdings and its senior management violated the FLSA because they had “no reasonable basis to believe that Plaintiffs and the members of the FLSA Collective were exempt from the requirements of the FLSA.” According to court documents, the defendants either” knew or acted with reckless disregard of clearly applicable FLSA provisions because they maintained payroll records which reflected the fact that Plaintiffs and the FLSA Collective did, in fact, regularly work in excess of 40 hours per week, and thus, Defendants had actual knowledge that Plaintiffs and the FLSA Collective Members worked overtime.”

The lawsuit intends to represent anyone in the United States who worked for Tegria Holdings, LLC and provided software training to hospital workers at any time since April 20, 2020. The suit also aims to cover those who worked for Tegria and provided software training to healthcare clients in New York at any time since April 20, 2017, reports Law360. The case is Chery et al. v. Tegria Holdings LLC, case number 2.23-cv-00612, in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington.