Former and current nurses and physician assistants (PAs) working at the Department of Veterans Affairs from 2012 until the end of last year will get $145 million because of a lawsuit seeking unpaid overtime pay.
The lawsuit was filed in 2012 by a VA employee who was required to update electronic health records off the clock but didn’t get paid for it. The employee later discovered many VA registered nurses, nurse practitioners, and physician assistants were being asked to put in unpaid work hours. With this evidence, the lawsuit was certified as a class action.
AFGE supports the class action lawsuit, which was handled by private law firms. Over the years, our General Counsel’s Office and the National VA Council repeatedly promoted the opportunity for VA employees to join the lawsuit if they managed patients’ electronic health records and responded to notifications without pay. We worked with locals at various locations to hold in-person meetings where the affected nurses and PAs signed up to join the lawsuit.
A federal judge last year approved a settlement of $160 million – one of the largest settlements in an overtime case involving federal workers – allowing funds to be paid out to 3,200 employees affected. The breakdown of where the funds are being paid by location was announced last week. About $145 million, or about 90% of the money, will go to employees represented by AFGE. The rest goes to those represented by other unions.
“This successful lawsuit validates that the VA’s practice of requiring RNs and PAs to do charting and other work during non-duty hours without compensation was unlawful,” said AFGE Deputy General Counsel Cathie McQuiston, one of the AFGE attorneys who encouraged AFGE members to join the lawsuit. “AFGE and the National VA Council are pleased that our work to encourage eligible VA employees to join this lawsuit resulted in their receiving appropriate compensation for the work they were required to do off the clock by the VA.”
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