A Grundy County Circuit Court judge will decide within weeks whether county policy entitles sheriff’s department employees to extra pay for working on holidays back in 2005.
The hourly staff at the Grundy County Sheriff’s Office properly was paid overtime and holiday pay in 2005 under federal law for law enforcement agencies, court documents show. A group of 20 employees filed suit under the county’s 1998 personnel policy seeking extra compensation, records show.
The plaintiffs include County Mayor Lonnie Cleek, who was a deputy when the suit was filed. Cleek could not be reached Wednesday for comment.
Judge Buddy Perry heard evidence last week but could take a month to render a decision, court officials said. The suit does not ask for a specific amount of back pay but seeks compensation individually for the officers plus 10 percent annual interest, documents state.
County Attorney Bill Rieder said he could not comment since a decision is pending.
Plaintiffs’ attorney Rusty Leonard said last week’s short trial “went as well as it possibly could have.”
“The judge is in a position where he’s going to have to make a decision on how to interpret the language of the employee handbook,” Leonard said.
Court records state that the plaintiffs acknowledge officers who worked holidays “were paid double-time for holidays as well as time-and-a-half for overtime,” but contend that those officers who worked holidays also were due additional hourly pay for the day.
The officers filing the lawsuit claimed an “unfair pay practice.”
Grundy County officers who didn’t work on recognized holidays received straight hourly pay, while officers who had to work were paid double time, documents state.
The plaintiffs contend, that under county policy, employees required to work holidays should be paid double time plus straight time.
“The pay practice therefore results in no true additional benefit to the officer who worked the holiday, while the officer who did not work the holiday has in fact been routinely paid for 12 hours work,” the plaintiffs state.
The county maintains it paid officers properly under federal laws and denies that pay under departmental policy “is unfair in any manner,” documents state.
The county wants the case dismissed, claiming the plaintiffs have no claim or grounds for relief, according to court records.