THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, January 21, 1995 TAG: 9501210193
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B7 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: JON FRANK, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Short : 40 lines
A group of supervisors in the Norfolk Police Department has filed suit in U.S. District Court, asking that the city pay three years of overtime they say is due them under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act.
The group includes 37 sergeants, lieutenants and captains, said Andrew M. Sacks, their attorney. The lawsuit was filed in Norfolk on Wednesday.
Sacks said the group is alleging that the city ``willfully'' chose not to pay the overtime. The law allows claims to go back three years when the violation is willful, Sacks said, two years when the violation is unintentional.
``Police officers, whether of rank, or on the line, are involved on a daily basis in an extremely high-pressure, critical and difficult task,'' Sacks said Friday. ``If they are working overtime, we think it is only fair that their rights be enforced. . . . They should be paid that they are due.''
Sacks said that until the early 1990s, sergeants were allowed to claim time-and-a-half for overtime, but then the city stopped allowing it. Captains and lieutenants, he said, have never been paid overtime.
``The fact that sergeants did get overtime is significant,'' Sacks said. ``And we think the practice of paying them overtime should be reinstated.''
Sacks would not estimate the total payment the group would be seeking. He said he expected other officers to join the suit before it is resolved.
Sacks said he expects the case to go to trial sometime this year.
A suit states only one side of a dispute. The city has not filed an answer.
KEYWORDS: OVERTIME PAY NORFOLK POLICE DEPARTMENT by CNB