The corporation contends that the nurses work is unique, and that each site visit is different. To support their position they point to an administrative letter from the Acting Administrator of the Wage and Hour Division of the U.S. Department of Labor dated June 1992 stating that home health workers being paid in a similar manner to the plaintiffs were paid on a fee basis. These letters stated that the fee basis provision was created for illustrators, singers, or artists, not nurses who perform basically repetitive tasks. Although these letters seems compelling, the Sixth Circuit rejected the nurses arguments. The court finds that home health care nurses were not considered when the law was written and that a letter written by the Acting Administrator carries more weight than the later letters.
Evidence presented by the nurses during their depositions further supports the decision.
The nurses testified that each patient's situation was different and that each visit was distinct from all other visits. As an aside, this case presents further evidence of the need for DOL to update the regulations. If an employer does so, and fails to correct the mistake, the employees will lose exempt status and become entitled to overtime pay. This can be a costly error. B.N. Spradling v. City of Tulsa, Oklahoma, Docket No.