Dhaval Shah, M.D. Settles with U.S. Department of Labor
Dr. Dhaval Shah owner of the Clinical Infectious Diseases Specialist and Chairman of the Nevada Association of Physicians of Indian Origin, agreed to pay $43,247 in back wages and liquidated damages to 51 employees after a U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division (WHD) investigation found violations of the overtime provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).
This publication had to use the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) to obtain the complete investigative report from the Department of Labor on Dr. Dhaval Shah’s investigation on shortchanging his employees. The process took over a couple of months to obtain the full official report with some information redacted due to the legality, sensitivity and privacy issues related to the case. The department determined that certain information within these records is exempt from disclosure. Exemption protects trade secrets, commercial or financial information that is privileged or confidential.
The investigation, which was initiated as a full investigation, found that the medical practice was owned by Dr. Dhaval Shah with 100% ownership and the firm’s day to day business operations are run by Dr. Dhaval Shah. The period of investigation was from November 2015 through November 2018.
In December 2018, the Wage and Hour Investigator (WHI) held an initial conference in which Dr. Dhaval Shah, Owner, and Lisa Washington, Office Manager, were present. Dr. Shah stated that overtime is paid after 40 hours in a workweek. The investigator reviewed the records and confirmed that overtime was not paid consistently after 40 hours and that employees were paid straight time for overtime for all hours worked if the doctor did not approve the overtime. Further WHI determined that the employer paid overtime to employees a very small percentage of the time, overtime was only paid if approved by Dr. Shah.
WHI computed the total back wages, including overtime, for 51 employees. Violations were found due to the employer paying straight time for all hours worked and not paying half time for hours worked over 40 in a workweek.
The medical practice provided hardcopy daily timesheets for each employee for the three-year investigative period. WHI transcribed and summed the daily hours to obtain the total weekly hours worked for each employee. Later, Wage and Hour Investigator held a conference with Page McAlister, Office Manager, and Dr. Dhaval Shah. In the meeting, the investigator informed Dr. Shah of violations found under Sec. 7 Overtime of the FLSA due to the employer (Dr. Shah) paying straight time for overtime and failing to pay overtime for hours worked over 40 in a workweek. Dr. Shah agreed to comply with the overtime rules and regulations.
Further WHI explained the back wages process and requirements of proof of payment. Dr. Shah agreed to pay but stated he’d provide the investigator with additional documentation of advances on pay provided to employees that did not return after the advance. Dr. Shah asked if those advances could be taken into consideration to reduce the back wage liability owed. The investigator informed Dr. Shah that he could provide the documentation and it would be reviewed to make a determination whether credit could be provided.
Liquidated damages were recommended and assessed. Civil money penalties were not recommended as this was a first investigation of Dr. Shah’s labor/wage investigation. Agreement called for Dr. Dhaval Shah to pay $43,247 in back wages and liquidated damages to 51 employees after a U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division (WHD) investigation found violations of the overtime provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).
“Employers are responsible for ensuring that they pay employees all the wages they have legally earned and for keeping accurate records of their hours,” said Wage and Hour Division District Director Gaspar Montanez, in Las Vegas, Nevada.
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Dhaval Shah should resign from NAPI and apologize to the community for spoiling the image as “ exploiter”
People of community donot say anything good about this guy .
His thought process is always MONEY and ME.
Another unethical Indian doctor crook! So what else is new? First they cheat and swindle patients, employees, insurance companies, and government. Then they become office holders of public organizations or donors of Hindu temple, soon they get caught by the law, pay one hundredth of what they gained illegally, and live happily ever after. Bhagwan tera bhala nahin, bura kare.
Not all Indian Doctors are unethical. There are hundreds of doctors of Indian origin practicing in Las Vegas who you never read about because they are working hard and doing good for their patients.
But some doctors go over the limit because of greed and reading about them is horrible and give bad reputation to everyone else.
There is a saying “where there is smoke, look for the fire.” I SUSPECT that Dr. Dhaval Shah is under more serious investigations…you will have to wait on this until it becomes public. The fire will be quite severe.
This news article in dr Dhaval is actually a distraction for The real news which is that dr Dhaval shah has actually surrendered his medical license to practice medicine in the state of Nevada for actions far beyond and more criminal than the labor issues stated above. Will wait for “Vegas Desi” to publish the actual news!!
This is only a portion of what I was owed because I couldn’t go back more than 2 years with the states labor board. See below the breakdown of what I sent the labor board. This was my pay as the billing manager…pretty sad. I left in August 2018 and it’s thanks to me that this guy was brought to justice. I can’t believe I stayed and dealt with this nightmare but I did because he promised to take care of us but really he just wore us down. I literally cried everyday at work I was so stressed. Working day and night trying so hard and never able to just get ahead.
I received $74,192.90 at $17.00 per hour gross for dates 09/19/2016 to 01/13/2018. I have 379.29 hours of overtime at $8.50 per hour underpaid owed to me at $3,223.96.
I received $21,195.91 at $18.00 per hour gross for dates 01/14/2018 to 08/17/2018. I have 48.93 hours of overtime at $9.00 per hour underpaid owed to me at $440.37
Total gross amount earned by me both pay amounts combined $74,192.90 and $21,195.91 equals $74,192.90. (gross)
I should have earned $77,857,23 (gross) I am owed the combined overtime amounts of $3,223.96 and $440.37 equaling $3,664.33 (gross).
After I filed they opened up their investigation and every employee affected in the time frame was compensated as far as I know. But even that was a mess. He is an abuser of people and good employers. If your being underpaid all I have to say is stand up for yourself. You have rights!! You are not alone!
I received good treatment at first! Then, gradually level of care went down. First we had wi fi! First we had water bottles as needed. First we had great expensive antibiotics! Then…later …no waters…no wi fi…..and everyone was put on vancomycin!
I met some wonderful nurses there!! Friendly, other patients …very nice friendly place! Hyperbaric tech was excellent! I am very sad the clinic closed! Condolences to families who lost loved ones! I quit after 6 months from Jan to May I did not heal! My picc line was removed, no more hyperbaric! I finally recovered with home health care!