A Pennsylvania company used a staffing firm to disguise overtime hours, and the firms — owned by a mother and daughter — have been ordered to pay more than $2.4 million in overtime back wages and liquidated damages, the US Department of Labor reported. The money will go to 345 home healthcare workers in the Pittsburgh area.

The client firm, a franchise of Elder Resource Management Inc., was owned by Anna Zaydenberg and operated as ComForCare Home Care, according to the department. Zaydenberg’s daughter, Marsha Simonds, owned the staffing firm, Staff Source.

Both firms were ordered to pay $1.2 million for a total of $2.4 million following a three-day trial, the department reported.

Zaydenberg’s firm redirected workers’ overtime hours to Staff Source to avoid paying overtime, according to the department. The workers received two separate checks — one from Zaydenberg’s firm and one from Staff Source.

Investigators found that staff at Zaydenberg’s firm handled payroll for both it and Staff Source. They repeatedly manipulated the payrolls so that each check showed less than 40 hours a week, and often the company paid no overtime, even when employees worked 50, 60 or more hours some weeks, according to the department.