CHESAPEAKE, Va. — A former nurse is suing Chesapeake Regional Healthcare, alleging the hospital failed to properly pay hourly employees for all time worked and violated federal and Virginia overtime laws.
According to a complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, Tabatha Gutierrez worked as a registered nurse at Chesapeake Regional Medical Center from December 2023 until July 2026. The lawsuit was filed Oct. 14 and seeks unpaid wages, damages and court approval to allow other employees to join the case.
The lawsuit alleges Chesapeake Regional automatically deducts 30 minutes from employees' work hours each day for meal breaks, even when workers remain on duty and continue performing job-related tasks.
According to the complaint, nurses and other patient care employees often were unable to take uninterrupted meal breaks because they needed to monitor patients and respond to patient-care needs. The suit alleges employees regularly worked during those unpaid breaks but were not compensated for the time.
The complaint also challenges the hospital's timekeeping policies. Attorneys for Gutierrez allege Chesapeake Regional rounds employees' clock-in and clock-out times to the nearest quarter hour and that the practice results in workers losing compensable work time. The lawsuit further alleges employees could face discipline for clocking in too early or clocking out too late, while still being expected to begin working immediately after clocking in.
In addition, the lawsuit claims Chesapeake Regional failed to properly factor certain non-discretionary bonuses, including sign-on bonuses, into overtime calculations. The complaint alleges this resulted in employees receiving lower overtime pay than required under federal and state law.
Gutierrez says she typically worked between 48 and 80 hours per week as an emergency room nurse and was paid about $44 per hour during her employment. The lawsuit alleges she received a sign-on bonus totaling about $15,000 that was not included in overtime calculations.
The suit seeks collective-action status under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act and class-action status under Virginia law. If approved by the court, other hourly Chesapeake Regional employees who were allegedly affected by the same policies could be allowed to participate in the case.
The complaint alleges the policies affected hourly employees across Chesapeake Regional's facilities during the past three years. Chesapeake Regional has not yet filed a response to the allegations in court. The allegations contained in the lawsuit have not been proven, and the court has not ruled on the claims.
According to the complaint, Chesapeake Regional has previously faced litigation involving wage and overtime claims.
WTKR News 3 has reached out to Chesapeake Regional Healthcare for comment and will update this story when a response is received.
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