NEWTON COUNTY, Ga. — A lawsuit filed in March against the Newton County School District accuses the school system of not paying overtime to school resource officers.
The case was filed in federal court, alleging that Newton County Schools did not pay the full overtime rate for officers who worked 40 hour weeks, then additional time for school events.
The named plaintiff in the class-action lawsuit is Gregory McCarthy, who said in the court filing that the Newton County School District only paid $45 per hour for event security, despite being in addition to the 40 hours worked by McCarthy.
“At all relevant times, Plaintiff regularly worked far in excess of 40 hours per week,” the lawsuit reads. “At all relevant times, Defendants failed to compensate Plaintiff at one-and-one-half times his regular hourly rate for all hours worked in excess of 40 hours in each workweek.”
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According to the lawsuit, overtime pay under the contract would be for time-and-a-half of the normal pay per hour. When working normal overtime, rather than event security, McCarthy’s lawsuit says NCSD paid correct overtime for his base wage of $43.40.
Had the overtime payment been made correctly, according to the lawsuit, NCSD should have been paying roughly $65 per hour.
The lawsuit said this practice was in effect for three years of McCarthy’s time working at NCSD via their contract with the Newton County Sheriff’s Office.
McCarthy’s lawsuit alleges that nearly all of his overtime hours for school event security went without the proper overtime wages, and that he was not the only officer impacted by this practice.
Court records show five other SROs have signed onto the lawsuit as co-plaintiffs since it was filed on March 30.
Channel 2 Action News reached out to the Newton County School District, it declined to comment on pending litigation.
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