MINDEN, La. — The city of Minden will collect overpayments and pay lost wages to fire and police department employees after a city council approved the measure last week.
The measure was passed in light of an internal audit that revealed numerous pay errors for firefighters and police officers dating back 10 years, reported the Press Herald. The audit revealed that the city did not include state supplemental pay when calculating the annual raise for firefighters; which left four firefighters underpaid.
The state law was not used when determining Fair Labor Standards Act hours and holiday pay, according to the audit.
After one firefighter was promoted in 2007, they were overpaid $89 a month. The city plans to collect all overpayments made to the employees from their hire date, and will pay back those who were underpaid.
“Any overpayments made could be considered misuse of public funds so we are going all the way back to collect the money,” Mayor Tommy Davis said.
No timeline has been released for when payment and collections from employees would begin.