The City of Wichita has agreed to pay nearly $155,000 to six fire department investigators who complained they weren’t getting paid overtime wages soon enough, ending a lawsuit alleging violations of federal labor law.
The settlement represents “100 cents on the dollar” for nearly $140,000 in claims brought by Branden Arnold, Chris Dugan, Donny Eckerman, Joseph Evans, Mark Reibenspies and David Thissen plus $15,000 for their attorney’s fees and other prosecution costs, according to a motion for settlement approved by a federal judge earlier this month.
The investigators alleged in a lawsuit filed in December that the city was using the wrong threshold to decide when to start paying them time and a half, resulting in lost wages of about $390 a paycheck for someone who makes $20 an hour, their attorney, Sean McGivern, said at the time.
They argued that because they are uniformed and trained law enforcement officers who aren’t involved in fire suppression they should receive overtime pay after working 165 hours in a 27-day pay period — like police do — rather than after working 204 hours, like firefighters.