A federal judge in Nashville has approved a $3 million settlement in a lawsuit against Guardian Home Care & Hospice, a division of Dallas-based AccentCare. The lawsuit was brought by nurses who worked at the agency and claimed they were not paid for overtime. 
 
The nurses' attorneys said the agency violated the federal Fair Labor Standards Act by paying the nurses on a fee-per-visit basis and also paying them an hourly rate for work such as filling out medical records and attending meetings, according to a report in The Tennessean. The federal law says employees who charge a fee are not eligible for overtime, but the nurses said because they also got paid sometimes as hourly employees, Guardian Home Care could not refuse to pay them hourly overtime for hours worked over 40 hours.
 
The nurses' lawyers are also pursuing a case dealing with similar overtime issues involving Dallas-based Intrepid U.S.A. Healthcare Services, which has at least three offices in Tennessee and operates in more than 20 states.