District Court of Arizona, Case No. CV-23-68-PHX-DGC
On January 11, 2023, an employee of Maricopa County working as a Patrol Lieutenant for the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office in Arizona filed a lawsuit in the United States District Court for the District of Arizona to recover unpaid overtime for hours he alleges to have been required to work over forty in a workweek without receiving time and a half. In the Complaint, the Patrol Lieutenant alleges that after he received his promotion to Lieutenant, Maricopa County began improperly classifying him as exempt from overtime and not paying him time and a half for hours he is required to work over forty in a workweek, even though his primary duties remained law enforcement first responder duties.
On April 11, 2023, the Patrol Lieutenant serving as the Named Plaintiff filed a Motion for Conditional Certification under the Fair Labor Standards Act. In that Motion, the Patrol Lieutenant argues that all the Patrol Lieutenants for Maricopa County are subject to the same policy of classifying them as exempt employees, when their primary duty is law enforcement and they should be getting paid time and a half for hours they work over forty in a workweek. The Patrol Lieutenant asks the Court to certify the case as an FLSA collective action, so that other Patrol Lieutenants who worked for the County in the past three years can receive notice of the lawsuit and be given a chance to join the case if they wish to pursue unpaid overtime.
If you worked as a Patrol Lieutenant for Maricopa County within the past three years, you may be impacted by the claims in this case. If you wish to learn more about your legal rights, you can contact Ty Frankel or Patti Syverson, the attorneys at Yen Pilch Robaina & Kresin PLC who are representing the Plaintiff in this case, to discuss your specific legal situation and whether you may be eligible to pursue your claims as a participant in this action. They can be reached by calling 602-682-6450.