Hinds County to settle Dept. of Labor overtime case
Hinds County will temporarily borrow up to $450,000 to settle the U.S. Department of Labor's claims against the county in a long-running federal case involving Hinds County Sheriff Department employees who weren’t paid for some overtime work.
Now, the county has reach a settlement with the Department of Labor for remaining claims of employees or former employees who didn’t opt-in to the settlement.
RELATED: Labor Department investigation of Hinds County.
Last week, the Hinds County Board of Supervisors approved a resolution to borrow up to $450,000 through a tax anticipation loan. The majority of the county's tax revenue doesn't come in until January and February.
Board of Supervisors' Attorney Pieter Teeuwissen said Tuesday the goal is to pay the settlement claim as soon as possible. The case began in 2012.
No one who was part of the class action settlement will receive any of the money from the Department of Labor settlement. It's only for those who weren't part of the lawsuit.
"(Department of) Labor is comparing lists; we want to make sure no one is on the settlement list more than once," Teeuwissen has said.
Initially, when the lawsuit and the Department of Labor investigation began, it was feared by county officials that as much as $20 million might have to paid to resolve the overtime cases. Teeuwissen said Tuesday it looks like the county's final cost will be about $1.5 million.
The case started in 2012, when employees Derius Harris and Ray Marshall sued Hinds County. Another employee, Frederick Malone, later joined the class action suit.
The overtime issue involves the administration of former Sheriff Tyrone Lewis, who took office in January 2012, as well as the late Sheriff Malcolm McMillin, who lost a re-election bid to Lewis in 2011.
Lewis lost his re-election bid to Victor Mason, who took office in January.
The former employees in the lawsuit were seeking to recover unpaid overtime compensation. They had been correctional officers employed by the sheriff's department in non-supervisory positions.
The employees said they were not paid all overtime wages owed and that the county didn't pay for all compensatory time earned when the employees' employment ended.
Mick Norris, one of the attorneys for the plaintiffs in the class action lawsuit, has said the county has taken steps to clean up everything. He said accurate records are now kept of sheriff employees' overtime and how much compensatory time each employee is owed is reflected on pay stubs.
Hinds County also agreed as part of the settlement that the sheriff's department would implement a policy that placed a limit of 480 hours on the amount of compensatory time an employee can accrue. Once an employee reaches that limit, the county will pay overtime instead of compensatory time.
Contact Jimmie E. Gates at 601-961-7212 or jgates@jackson.gannett.com. Follow @jgatesnews on Twitter.