Gwinnett Medical Examiner’s Office Wins Lawsuit Filed by Former Employees Over Unpaid Overtime

A Georgia jury decided not to award seven former employees who had filed a lawsuit against the Gwinnett County Medical Examiner’s Office over what they claimed were unpaid overtime hours. The former examiners filed a lawsuit against Dr. Carol Terry and forensic pathology services, the private company hired by Gwinnett County to handle all death investigations. After a two-week trial, the jury ruled in favor of Terry and Forensic Pathology Services.

Gwinnett is the only metro Atlanta county that outsources death investigations to a private firm. Forensic Pathology Services is paid around $1.5 million each year and has worked for the county since 2006.

According to the lawsuit, the former investigators told the media that they were assigned to work nights and weekends to handle death scenes. The employees claimed that they sometimes worked over 100 hours a week but were only paid for 40 hours. One employee said that the investigators were literally falling asleep in the morgue because they hadn’t had any rest.

The defense in this case argued that the employees were salaried and exempt from overtime rules. After the employees filed a Department of Labor complaint, Terry limited the staff to a 40 hour work week.

What the jury had to say 

After deliberating for over an hour, the jury ruled that the former employees were not owed back pay because of their job classification. In a press release after the jury’s verdict, a spokesperson for forensic pathology services claimed that the employees used their work days to do personal errands and had part time jobs inside businesses.

“Dr. Terry had faced claims of allegedly improperly classifying employees and allegedly failing to pay overtime,” the spokesperson wrote. “Contrary to those allegations, the jury concluded that Dr. Terry’s forensic death investigators, employed and empowered by the Georgia Death Investigations Act, were properly classified as administratively exempt from the Fair Labor Standards Act.”

FLSA overtime lawsuits 

Failing to pay overtime is one of the leading methods of wage theft. In many cases, an employer will fail to pay for work that is off the clock, or misclassify employees as exempt from the FLSA when they are actually not. The Fair Labor Standards Act entitles workers to overtime pay when they complete more than 40 hours in a work week, or work more than 12 hours in a day.

In the case mentioned above, the employees believed that they were misclassified as salaried workers and entitled to overtime pay based on their classification. However, a Gwinnett County jury found that they were classified appropriately and were thus not entitled to overtime pay.

Talk to an Atlanta GA FLSA attorney today 

The Forsythe Law Firm, LLC represents the interest of employees who have been shortchanged by their employers when it comes to overtime pay, tips, or minimum wage. Call our Atlanta employment lawyers today to schedule an appointment, and we can begin discussing your allegations immediately.

Source:

fox5atlanta.com/news/gwinnett-medical-examiners-office-lawsuit-employees-overtime-pay