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Lafourche nurses file lawsuit alleging unpaid wages during Hurricane Ida nursing home evacuation

The Courier - 10/23/2021

Oct. 23—Several employees at a Lafourche Parish nursing home that evacuated to a warehouse in Tangipahoa Parish during Hurricane Ida are suing the facility's owner over unpaid wages.

Five nurses at South Lafourche Nursing and Rehab filed a class-action suit Sept. 29 in Jefferson Parish against Baton Rouge businessman Bob Dean and seven nursing homes that he owns.

About 850 residents from those nursing homes were evacuated to an Independence-based warehouse owned by Dean ahead of the Category 4 storm which made landfall Aug. 29 in southeast Louisiana.

Multiple lawsuits have since been filed against Dean alleging evacuees endured nightmarish conditions as they were crammed into the ill-equipped facility.

Dean's facilities have all since been shut down by the state Health Department. An attorney for Dean has said he plans to appeal that action.

According to the Department of Health, five deaths have been directly linked to the evacuation but 27 other nursing home residents who were moved to the warehouse have also died.

The employees allege in court papers they worked "excessively long hours" at the warehouse from Aug. 27 to Sept. 2 but were not paid in full for the work they performed.

According to the complaint, nurses are supposed to earn a special "hurricane pay rate" of $750 to $3,000 per day during evacuations depending on their qualifications, but the plaintiffs' paychecks did not reflect the increased pay.

New Orleans attorney Jonathan C. Pedersen, who represents the plaintiffs, said one of the nurses contacted him about the discrepancy.

"She was very distraught and told me that she was working around the clock and that she didn't get paid for all of her work," Pedersen said. "Once I met with her and understood the facts, it was a very obvious case that had to get filed. You are given a hurricane pay rate which is a higher amount than your typical 365-day salary because of the nature of what's happening. All of my clients went to the nursing home and helped evacuate all the residents to the facility in Independence. While they were there, they tried to make the best of an absolutely horrid situation."

Baton Rouge attorney John McLindon, who represents Dean, said the employees' lawsuit resulted from a misunderstanding.

"There was just a breakdown in communication," McLindon said Friday. "Bob was telling them they would get that special pay but they thought that it would be on top of their regular pay. They thought they were entitled to that money on top of their regular salary, but it's going to be resolved."

Pedersen said he wants his clients to get what is owed to them after they endured horrendous conditions during the evacuation.

"Upper-level management all had hotel rooms where they could go to shower and sleep, but none of my clients had that luxury," he said. "Some of them had to drive 13 miles to a truck stop to take a shower. They didn't feed them properly and they were living on snacks from a gas station. These are human beings and we don't treat our dogs this way."

— Staff Writer Dan Copp can be reached at 448-7639 or at dan.copp@houmatoday.com. Follow him on Twitter @DanVCopp.

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