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 reports 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 suit 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.

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Associated Press