IBPO Lawsuit Results In $7.5 Million Payout To Be Made To Atlanta Police
A class action lawsuit filed by IBPO Attorney Lance Tyler on behalf of members of IBPO Local 623 has resulted in the city of Atlanta agreeing to pay $7.5 million to more than 100 police officers who were not paid for their overtime work. IBPO National Vice President and Local 623 president Scott Kreher was the lead plaintiff in the case.
The plaintiffs were ultimately represented by Andrew Sacks of Sacks & Sacks, Harlan Miller of Miller & Billips, and Mitchell Benjamin of Johnson & Benjamin.
“The monetary settlement in this case is obviously significant,” said IBPO National President David J. Holway. “But even more important than that is the city’s recognition that it must treat these officers with dignity, respect, and fairness. Theirs is an unbelievably difficult job, and they don’t work a 9 to 5 schedule. These officers are dedicated to protecting the citizens of Atlanta around the clock, and the City Council owes the same to them.”
The City Council must vote to approve the payment, which has already been approved by the council’s Public Safety Council. Attorney Tyler expects easy approval of the payment at the council’s August 20 meeting, citing City Attorney Beth Chandler’s statement that the city is satisfied with the proposed resolution.
The lawsuit, which was filed in 2004 in the U.S. District Court in Atlanta, contended the city violated the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 when it did not pay officers for the overtime work they had performed during the previous three years.
After the
The city claims the overlooked OT payment issue resulted primarily from the difficulty of tracking all the time the officers worked. Chandler reported to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that no system was in place to track certain hours, and that the city had since resolved the problem by instituting a new system. The city says it can now keep track of non-scheduled hours worked, such as the time an off-duty officer might work when responding to such issues as a call from an investigator or prosecutor who has questions about a case the officer worked.
Kreher says about the outcome of the case, “This is a landmark page in the history of APD and shows that our members will no longer allow the City or our department to take advantage of our hard work and dedication to the citizens of Atlanta.”