Obaoye v. Metro Care Management LLC d/b/a Essen Health Care, Docket No.: 1:25-cv-4920-MKV

Judge grants Conditional Certification of Collective Action in the United States District Court Southern District of New York

Plaintiff, Obaoye on behalf of himself, individually, and on behalf of all others similarly-situated, filed a collective action lawsuit in the United States District Court District Southern District of New York against Metro Care Management LLC d/b/a Essen Health Care, alleging violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”), the Maryland Wage and Hour Law (“MWHL”) and the Maryland Wage Payment and Collection Law (“MWPCL”), including the failure of Defendants to compensate Plaintiff for overtime wages.  The claims of the case are as follows:

• Plaintiff worked for Defendant – – a New York limited liability company, operates a network of healthcare providers across New York City. Plaintiff worked remotely from Maryland, as a clinical care coordinator from December 17, 2023, until August 27, 2024.
• Specifically, Defendant required Plaintiff to work, and Plaintiff did work, in excess of forty hours in workweek. Yet in exchange, Defendant, at its whim, paid Plaintiff on an hourly basis at his regular rate for only some of the first forty hours that he worked in a week and at his overtime rate of one and one-half times his regular rate for only some of the hours that he worked over forty in a week, and paid him nothing for many of the other hours that he worked each week, some of which were up to forty and some over forty.
• Additionally, Defendant did not pay Plaintiff at the statutorily-required rate of one and one-half times his regular rate for all of his overtime hours, in violation of the FLSA, the MWHL, and the MWPCL, or at his regular for all of the hours that he worked in a week up to forty, in violation of the MWPCL.
• Moreover, when dividing Plaintiff’s total hours worked in a week by his total pay received, Defendant paid Plaintiff below the minimum wage that Maryland law requires per hour of work, in violation of the MWHL and the MWPCL.
• Defendant paid and treated all of its clinical care coordinators in the same manner.

Defendant violated Plaintiffs’ rights guaranteed to them by the overtime provisions of the FLSA, the MWHL and the MWPCL.

Certification of Collective Action

In this case, pursuant to the request of the Plaintiffs, the Judge reviewed claims that the Plaintiffs brought forward alleging that there are additional workers in the same “class” (performing the same or similar duties) whose rights have been violated.  On September 24, 2026, the Court ordered the approval of a collective action allowing the case to proceed as a collective action enabling any current and former employees who were not paid properly to join the lawsuit and seek redress for Defendants’ failure to compensate them in accordance with the law.

If you or a person you know worked for the Defendants named in the lawsuit during the time period of December 2023 – present or has information that may be relevant to this case, contact Borrelli & Associates, P.L.L.C. as soon as possible through one of our websites, www.employmentlawyernewyork.com, www.516abogado.com or any of our phone numbers: (516) 248-5550, (516) ABOGADO, and (212) 679-5000.