Nurses forced to work without pay awarded $2.8 million

YAKIMA, Wash. – A Yakima County Superior Court Judge has awarded a group of home health workers $2.8 million after it was found that they were regularly required to work additional hours without pay.

The Yakima Herald-Republic reported Judge Blaine Gibson on Wednesday awarded the nurses $1.4 million in back pay for the time they spent working off the clock at then-Yakima Regional Medical and Cardiac Center.

An additional $1.4 million in punitive damages was awarded to the 28 nurses. The nurses worked in the hospital’s home health and hospice programs.

The Washington State Nurses Association, their union, filed a lawsuit against the hospital in 2015, alleging the nurses were only paid for eight-hour shifts but forced to work additional hours without pay.

The hospital has since changed ownership and is now Astria Regional Medical Center.