Бывшая медсестра Центрального Мейна подала иск против системы здравоохранения из-за систематического недоплаты за переработки и пропуск обедов

A former Central Maine Healthcare nurse has filed a lawsuit against the health system alleging that she and hundreds of other nurses were systematically underpaid for overtime work and for working through meal breaks since 2020. Katherine Gagnon of Poland worked as a registered nurse at Central Maine Medical Center in Lewiston for more than 20 years, until she left voluntarily in April 2025. Soon after, she filed a potential class and collective action lawsuit in Maine’s high court against the hospital’s owner, Central Maine Healthcare, seeking unpaid overtime wages for herself and other nurses who she claims were not appropriately paid under state and federal labor laws. The case is in discovery and has not been certified by a judge as a class action lawsuit. The allegations in the lawsuit occurred under previous ownership at Central Maine Healthcare, which was acquired by Prime Healthcare Foundation early this year. In addition to CMMC, the health system operates hospitals in Bridgton and Rumford as well as medical offices. A Prime Healthcare Foundation spokesperson said Friday the health system cannot comment on pending litigation. In a legal response to the complaint last year, the health system denied the claims and said it acted at all times with a “reasonable belief that its employment practices complied with state and federal laws and regulations.” According to the lawsuit, the health system began miscalculating wages after it formed “Extra Shift Work Agreements” with nurses and nursing assistants to fill staffing holes amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Under the agreements, nurses who took on extra shifts outside of their regular schedules were supposed to earn double their base rate for those hours, the lawsuit states. The lawsuit claims taking extra shifts often pushed their hours over 40 a week, which should have qualified those overtime hours to be paid at time and a half, as required by the Fair Labor Standards Act and Maine law. The lawsuit accuses Central Maine Healthcare of instead treating the double time wages as time-and-a-half overtime wages. Andrew Cotter, lawyer for the plaintiffs, said this practice shortchanged employees. “They were being paid the overtime and then a little bit extra on top of the overtime to make it look like double,” Cotter alleged. “You can look at it two ways: They either weren’t getting the full double time shift, or if they were getting the full double time shift, they were not getting overtime pay.” Because pay stubs from the health system were “unclear,” the lawsuit claims that Gagnon and other nurses were unable to understand how their overtime wages were being calculated. Cotter said the extra shift program continued at least through the lawsuit’s filing in August 2025. The lawsuit also alleges that the health system automatically deducted 30 minutes per shift for lunch breaks even though nurses regularly worked that time due to pressing schedules and understaffing. Gagnon said in the lawsuit she was often unable to take her break or had to work through it, in violation of the “30 consecutive minutes of rest time” required under Maine law. She said on most instances, she was both discouraged from reporting that she had worked through lunch and did not have time to make such reports to management after working long shifts, the suit alleges. Cotter alleged it was “nearly impossible” for nurses to seek out a manager during the day to adjust their time records, as he says was hospital policy. “If you’re too busy to be able to eat,” Cotter said, “you’re probably too busy to run through a hospital to find a supervisor.” Gagnon said in the suit she is personally aware of several other nurses who were impacted by the overtime and meal deduction issues. The lawsuit defined four classes that nurses who were not paid appropriately could fall into under state and federal laws. If the class action suit is certified by a judge, the court would then order formal notice to nurses and nursing assistants who were employed at Central Maine Healthcare and may qualify for benefits.