News Notes: Ninth Circuit Says Alter-Ego Employees Jointly Liable for Unpaid Wages

According to a new Ninth Circuit ruling, a group of health care employees who worked more than 40 hours a week, with the time split between two employers, was eligible for overtime pay because the companies qualified as a single enterprise. The two companies, A-One Health Care and Alternative Rehabilitation, had substantially merged their operations for Medicare certification purposes and were effectively controlled by the same individual. They shared the same receptionist, payroll processor, nursing supervisor, and employee scheduler. Because the operations were so interrelated, the federal Fair Labor Standards Act required the employees’ hours for the companies tobe combined when determining whether they worked more than 40 hours a week.