West suburban Chicago school district ordered to pay over $115,000 to security guards denied overtime
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Proviso Township High School District 209 in the western suburbs has been ordered to pay back wages and damages to school security guards who were denied overtime.
The U.S. Department of Labor said this was the fourth time the district has been found in violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act since 2007.
Under the terms of a consent judgment signed Wednesday by U.S. District Judge Matthew F. Kennelly, the district will pay $115,516 – $55,758 each in back wages and liquidated damages – directly to 46 employees, the department said.
The district was also fined $54,602 in civil money penalties for repeated violations.
The district must also now institute an electronic timekeeping system for its non-exempt workers, provide Fair Labor Standards Act training to administrators, supervisors, and non-exempt employees, and comply with federal wage laws.
The Office of the Solicitor for the U.S. Department of Labor filed litigation on Dec. 21, after an investigation by the department's Wage and Hour Division found the Forest Park-based school district failed to pay at least 46 guards overtime at one-half their regular pay rate during a 40-hour work week from at least April 13, 2020, until April 12, 2022, the department said.
Instead, the district paid the security guards a weekly rate for all hours worked – including such off-hours events as after-school sports, extracurricular activities, and district board of education meetings, the department said.
"A public institution that fails to follow the law repeatedly is also failing its students and other stakeholders by setting a poor example of non-compliance with federal law and by incurring penalties drawn from public funds," DOL Wage and Hour Division District Director Tom Gauza said in a release. "The Department of Labor will take all available actions to continue to hold employers accountable for paying their contracted employees their fully earned wages."
Proviso Township High School District 209 operates Proviso East High School in Maywood, Proviso West High School in Hillside, and Proviso Mathematics & Science Academy in Forest Park. The district serves 10 west suburban communities altogether.
The district was also penalized by the Department of Labor for overtime violations in 2007, 2011, and 2015. The district paid $26,584 to 45 employees in connection with those three investigations, the department said.