3 Travel Nurses Sue Maxim Healthcare Staffing Agency For Defraud
On July 29th, travel nurses Teyal Miller, Jennifer Reents, and Carolyn Miller filed a class-action complaint against the Maryland-based staffing company Maxim Healthcare Services. The suit alleges that the company defrauded the nurses by forcing them to either take a pay cut or be terminated even after agreeing on the terms of the assignment.
Carolyn Miller signed on for a travel nurse position with a base pay rate of $125 per hour. However, after starting the assignment, Maxim told her that she could either accept a new rate of $90 per hour or forfeit the position altogether. According to the lawsuit, nurses who are put in this “take-it-or-leave-it” predicament have no choice but to agree to the lower rate. By the time they are hit with this new agreement, they have already relocated, taken on travel costs, and signed a short-term housing contract. Travel nursing agencies will not reimburse the nurse if they decide to leave the contract. Nurses can be out thousands of dollars as a result.
The nurses named in the complaint argue that Maxim knowingly pursued this bait and switch strategy in an effort to maintain the same profit margins they were enjoying during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. Maxim is also accused of underpaying travel nurses for overtime hours, which is a violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act. This isn’t the first time Maxim has been taken to court. In August 2014, travel nurses sued for overtime wages that were not paid. A suit was filed in California federal court.
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Maxim responded with a statement that reads “It is our general practice not to discuss pending legal matters. The organization has partnered with healthcare providers and professionals for more than three decades and has a well-established track record of supporting and connecting healthcare professionals to work that matters."
The lawsuit hopes to receive statutory, punitive, compensatory, general, nominal, consequential, and/or exemplary damages.
