Public Employee Press

$3 million overtime win for Local 1457 members

Local 1457 members will get a total of $3 million under the partial settlement of a federal lawsuit in which they charged that the Dept. of Juvenile Justice cheated them out of overtime payments.

“This is a great victory, because the department and city never took us seriously,” said Alex Parker, president of Juvenile Center Employees Local 1457.

“For years, the department failed to acknowledge that their payroll system didn’t work,” Parker said. “But they still have an obligation to pay their workers in a timely fashion.”

In 2004, Local 1457 members sued the city and DJJ under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act, a New Deal-era law that deals with overtime pay, child labor and the minimum wage.

“Alex Parker knew the city was clearly inequitable in its treatment of the members, and we were able to use the federal law to force the city to comply with FDR’s goal of guaranteeing workers a fair day’s pay for a fair day’s work,” said Local 1457 attorney Thomas Gearon.

“We are proud that the members of a small local of 350 workers were able to use the FLSA to be compensated properly, which many unions have been unable to do until now,” Parker said.

Before the local went to court, the members attempted to resolve the dispute through negotiations and grassroots pressure. In December 2003, members rallied against their “100 percent work, 20 percent pay.”

The $3 million settlement deals with the department’s practice of paying members straight time rather than overtime by routinely having them work during scheduled meal breaks.

The $3 million dollar settlement also covers the Juvenile Counselors’ allegations that DJJ failed to pay them for work performed before and after their scheduled shifts.

The settlement includes their claim that DJJ failed to properly compensate the Juvenile Counselors for the 15 minutes of additional scheduled work they performed each shift, giving them instead a “floating day” for their overtime. And it deals with their claim that the city has been violating the Fair Labor Standards Act by its late payment of overtime.

Unsettled issues in the case include what is called the “gap time violation.” Here, the members allege that the Dept. of Juvenile Justice violated the FLSA by giving them compensatory time off instead of straight-time cash for work during the “gap” between their scheduled 35-hour workweeks and 40 hours.