Hourly employees of the Grundy County Sheriff's Department - one of whom is the new county mayor - must wait as long as a month for a ruling on whether they'll get overtime and holiday pay sought in a lawsuit filed in March 2005.
Federal labor laws and the sheriff's department's November 1998 personnel policies were violated and "employees insist they have not been paid properly," according to the lawsuit filed against the county by 20 sheriff's department employees, including newly elected county Mayor Lonnie Cleek, a former deputy.
The group made up the hourly staff of the sheriff's department in 2005, records show. The suit claims the employees are due holiday and overtime pay under federal Fair Labor Standards and departmental policy, the suit states. The suit does not name an amount of back pay sought.
Cleek, County Attorney William Rieder and plaintiffs' attorney Russell Leonard were unavailable for comment Wednesday.
Grundy County Circuit Court officials said Judge Buddy Perry will review transcripts of testimony he heard in a Wednesday hearing and issue a ruling in three or four weeks.
The suit says federal law dictates that employees be paid 1.5 times their hourly wage for all time worked over 40 hours a week. Under departmental policy, employees are to be paid double time for working one of 11 recognized holidays and given holiday pay for holidays not worked, the suit states.
At the time the lawsuit was filed, the employees worked under then-Sheriff Robert Meeks, who died in February of this year.
Plaintiffs Cleek, Berry Dooley, Bill Scissom and Dennis Womack were among six candidates seeking a Grundy County Commission appointment to replace Meeks when he announced in 2005 that he was stepping down due to health problems, according to court records and Chattanooga Times Free Press archives.
Remaining plaintiffs in the case are Randall R. Brewer, David M. Brown, Don L. Crabtree, Ralph T. Creighton, Roger Doss, Heather M. Fults, Christopher R. Fults, Aaron Gower, Jimmy Don Lewis, John Knost, Ken W. McCormick, Fred Nash, Coby Dale Scissom, Betty L. Cyr, James Caldwell and Russell Meeks, records show.
Contact Ben Benton at bbenton@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6569. Follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/BenBenton.