Lawsuit alleges UnityPoint workers lost wages through disputed timekeeping practices.
A proposed class action lawsuit against UnityPoint Health claims thousands of hourly workers may have been paid for less time than they actually worked. The case, filed in federal court in Iowa, centers on the way the hospital system recorded employee work hours and whether its timekeeping system caused workers to lose pay. The lawsuit was brought by Jennifer Randolph and Maggie McMahon, two former or current UnityPoint workers, on behalf of themselves and other hourly employees. The filing says UnityPoint broke federal wage law and Illinois wage laws by using a timekeeping system that rounded employee clock-in and clock-out times in a way that favored the company.
UnityPoint Health operates hospitals and medical centers across Iowa, Illinois and Wisconsin. The health system says it has about 29,000 employees and brings in more than $4.7 billion in annual revenue. Because a large part of its workforce is paid by the hour, even small changes in recorded work time could add up when spread across many employees.
According to the lawsuit, UnityPoint has used Kronos (UKG) to keep track of hours worked by hourly staff for about a decade. The filing claims the system was set up to remove certain minutes from an employee’s recorded time when the worker arrived before a scheduled shift or stayed after it ended. One example the lawsuit includes involves a worker scheduled to begin at 9 a.m. If that employee clocked in at 8:53 a.m., the filing says the extra seven minutes were not counted as paid time. A similar issue allegedly occurred when workers stayed as much as seven minutes beyond the scheduled end of a shift.
The lawsuit argues that these small amounts of unpaid time could become a much larger loss when repeated across days, weeks and years. The plaintiffs say the number of affected workers and the length of time the practice allegedly continued could result in a large amount of unpaid wages.
Randolph worked as a registered nurse for UnityPoint for about 16 years at facilities in Bettendorf, Rock Island and Moline. McMahon worked at UnityPoint’s Rock Island facility from June 2006 until March 2024. Their case was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Iowa, where UnityPoint Health is based.
The plaintiffs are asking the court to allow the case to move forward as a class action. They are also seeking unpaid wages, additional damages allowed under wage laws and payment of legal costs. Nate Boulton, a Des Moines attorney with Hedberg & Boulton and a former Iowa state senator, is representing the plaintiffs.
The Iowa case follows an earlier lawsuit filed by the same two workers in Illinois in April 2026. That case was later dropped after the new case was filed in Iowa. In the Illinois case, UnityPoint denied the allegations, including the claim that its system rounded employee hours in a way that reduced pay. The company also denied paying hourly workers based on rounded times instead of their actual hours. UnityPoint has not yet filed its response. If the case is allowed to continue as a class action, more workers could potentially become part of the lawsuit and seek payment for time they say was not properly recorded or paid.
Sources:
Class-action lawsuit claims UnityPoint Health shortchanged hourly workers
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