The U.S. Department of Labor has accused the Wynne Police Department of breaking labor laws by not paying its officers for overtime work.
The folks at the DOL already have slapped a $27,000 fine against the police department. Labor officials now are calculating exactly how much money is owed to at least 25 officers who worked more than 40 hours in a week but weren’t properly paid overtime, according to Wynne Mayor Bob Stacy.
DOL filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court against the police department to collect the damages.
Stacy said the failure to pay overtime was an oversight and by no means intentional. He said when the practice was discovered as a result of an audit, it stopped on Jan. 1, 2011.
Stacy said the problem was a result of officers being assigned to special events, such as ballgames, but not being paid at least time and a half for the overtime work or given time off that was equal to time and a half.
The person who was in charge of paying the officers didn’t realize that compensatory time had to be time and a half, just like paying for overtime, Stacy said.
Currently there are 13 uniformed police officers for the city of 8,300.
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