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Settlement Reached with Massachusetts Nursing Homes that Failed to Pay Earned Vacation Time

August 22, 2013

A settlement between Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley and Ellis Nursing Homes Inc. was reached on August 5 to resolve allegations that the Massachusetts-based nursing home chain neglected to pay earned vacation time to 209 of its terminated employees.

Ellis Nursing has agreed to pay $132,000 in penalties and restitution to the former employees of four of the company’s nursing homes.

In January 2013, the Attorney General received a complaint from a former employee of one the nursing homes in the Ellis chain which led her office to investigate at other facilities owned by the company, according to a Legal Newsline article.

“Failure to pay wages is a violation of Massachusetts law that must be enforced to protect employees who earned their pay,” Coakley is reported to have said. “We are pleased that this settlement will bring restitution to the former employees who were affected by the actions of these companies.”

Ellis Nursing Homes, Inc. cooperated fully with the investigation, reports Legal Newsline.

The nonpayment was an “oversight,” Danielle Franchi is quoted as saying in a Boston Globe article. Her father, Anthony Franchi, is the owner of Ellis Nursing Homes Inc.

Ms. Franchi claims that the terminated workers were “not being paid for vacation time that they had accrued for the following year.”

“Something had changed, and we didn’t realize it,” she added.

The four facilities involved in the allegations are Grove Manor Estates Inc., Glen at Grove Manor Inc., Ellis Rehabilitation and Nursing Center, and Meadow Green Rehabilitation and Nursing Home Inc.

— by Deane Beebe

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