City gets boost in overtime pay dispute

A Jan. 8 Cole County Circuit Court decision, however, may have given the city’s cause a jump start.

In its decision in Howard Wright, et al. v. Missouri Department of Labor and Industrial Relations, et al., the court ruled that the law stated in Proposition B, passed in 2006, doesn’t apply to local governments because the law defines an employer as “any individual, partnership, association, corporation, business, business trust, legal representative or any organized group of persons.” The court ruled that local governments do not fall under that definition.

$1M in backpay

At issue for Springfield, and several other cities, was the statute’s requirement that employees working more than 40 hours a week be paid time and a half for the overage.

Springfield City Manager Bob Cumley said that, if the law was upheld, the city could owe more than $1 million in back overtime pay to firefighters, who work two to three 24-hour shifts each week.

The city, Cumley said, has followed the guidelines of the Federal Fair Labor Standards Act, which allows firefighters to work up to 212 hours in any 28-day period.

“The issue had a tremendous impact on the Fire department’s budget,” Cumley said. “We just wanted to go back to the way we were operating, and that is in accordance with the Federal FLSA.”

He noted that the city had no problem with the minimum wage itself; the only problem was with the overtime requirement. He said the city would still push for a change to the law, as there is no guarantee that the court ruling won’t be appealed.

This story originally appeared in SBJ’s Jan. 11 free e-news Daily Update. Click here to register.[[In-content Ad]]