MOKENA, IL — Eight current and former Mokena police sergeants are seeking more than $5 million in unpaid overtime that dates back 10 years and that is costing the village and local taxpayers an estimated $30,000 per month in interest alone, according to a lawsuit that was recently filed.
The suit, which was filed on Sunday, is an amended complaint to two previous lawsuits that have been filed against the village seeking back pay. The former officers, who are not represented by a union like the village’s patrol officers are, are seeking wages that they claim are owed to them pursuant to the Federal Fair Labor Standards Act as well as Illinois fair wages standards.
The newest amendment adds about seven years to the complaint after the initial lawsuits were seeking a total of three years in damages, the Mokena officers’ attorney told Patch.
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“As far as we know, this has been their policy forever,” Patrick Walsh, a Chicago-based attorney who represents firefighters and police officers around Northern Illinois, told Patch in regard to the complaint against the village of Mokena.
The $5 million in damages consists of unpaid overtime, accrued statutory interest, and statutory penalties such as “treble” or triple damages, Walsh said.
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The suit involves six current Mokena police sergeants, a police commander, and one retired sergeant, all of whom say that the village has not properly paid them. In some cases, the lawsuit claims, village officials forced the officers to work different shifts during the week to avoid paying them overtime, which is a violation of federal law.
The suit also claims that the village forced officers to work 20 minutes before each of their shifts, which caused them to work more than eight hours per day and 40 hours per week, which — according to the village’s employee manual — constitutes overtime. While the village manual calls for employees to be paid time and a half once they cross over into overtime, the village has consistently failed to pay the officers for the extra time worked, the lawsuit claims.
“Wage and overtime laws contain severe penalties for the employer that chooses to violate them, including triple damages and 5 percent interest per month on any unpaid wages,” Walsh said in a statement issued to Patch on Wednesday. “These penalties are legislative expressions of the seriousness of failing to pay wages and overtime pay to employees who earned them and the importance of respecting the employees who work so hard to protect the citizens of Mokena.
“Failing to pay employees is not something that one would expect to see at a municipality the size of Mokena. Mokena appears to be an exception.”
Walsh represents Joseph Ballantine, Christopher Carlson, Stephen Chlebeck, Michael Keller, Jason Louthan, Robert Miller, Gregory Selin and Robert Williford, who claim they are owed unpaid overtime from over the past 10 years.
Of the eight, only Keller has retired, leaving the police force in 2022. In a statement issued through his attorney, Keller said regarding the village’s failure to pay: “Mayor (Frank) Fleischer and Village Administrator (John) Tomasoski were given multiple opportunities to resolve all of these issues prior to the filing of lawsuits and rejected those opportunities. They act as if federal and state wage laws don’t apply to Mokena.”
He added: “I’m confident those responsible for the unfair treatment of village employees will be held accountable for their actions. Unfortunately, this accountability will come at the expense of the citizens of Mokena.”
Walsh said that the other officers are prohibited from speaking to the media, according to village policy.
In response to the lawsuit, Tomasoski offered the following statement on behalf of the village when contacted by Patch on Wednesday.
“The sergeants filed a lawsuit for overtime wages they believe they are owed,” Tomasoski said in a phone call with Patch, reading from the statement. “The village believes the sergeants have been paid correctly. But despite this dispute, the village values the hard work and we value the dedication of all of our employees, including our police sergeants. But with the litigation still pending, the village cannot make any substantial comments on the facts of the case as all of the parties are working to resolve the matter.”
Six of the officers first filed suit against the village in 2021, claiming that the village has continued to avoid paying overtime as it is laid out in the employee manual. A year later, the officers filed a second lawsuit, claiming that not only were they still owed the unpaid overtime, but that the village had continued the practices of forcing officers to begin shifts at different times to avoid paying overtime.
Labor laws mandate that a shift time cannot be changed unless the change is designed to be permanent, Walsh said. But the village forced the time changes on the officers strictly to avoid paying overtime, the attorney said.
In each case, the officers were paid on an hourly basis and are paid on a bi-weekly basis, the lawsuit states. According to the suit, a standard workweek consists of 40 hours, after which the village is required to pay employees at a rate of time and a half of what they typically earn per hour.
However, over the 10-year period, the village has failed to calculate overtime for any time over eight hours per day or 40 hours per week worked, according to the suit. Instead, the village only considered paying overtime if the officers worked more than 80 hours over a two-week period.
Federal law, however, stipulates that if an employee works 30 hours one week and 50 hours the next, workers are entitled to overtime for the second week since they spent more than 40 hours on the clock the second week, according to the suit.
The suit also claims that the village’s workday for officers was calculated after a daily roll call, rather than including roll call as part of the day. In addition, the officers claim they were not paid for the 20 minutes they were required to work each shift which are designed for them to communicate with the sergeant that worked the previous shift.
In the lawsuit, officers refer to the 20-minute period as being “an integral and indispensable” part of the workday and should be included in the time for which they are paid.
The suit states that the employee manual said that the village calculates overtime at the nearest half-hour, which the officers claim should be counted toward overtime.
Walsh told Patch on Wednesday that the village should be paying overtime pursuant to Illinois wage laws or the village’s employee manual. However, in the case of the officers, the village has failed to recognize either policy, and “they owe a lot of money because of it,” Walsh said.
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