By Lisa Sink
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (Wisconsin)
BROOKFIELD, Wis. — The town owes Fire Department employees overtime pay from 1998 to 2000, but exactly how much pay will have to be determined by town officials and the firefighters union, a state panel has ruled.
Ruling against the town, the Wisconsin Employment Relations Commission said the town failed to include all back pay owed under the union’s first contract when it paid firefighters $275,571 in December 2000.
The $275,571 included regular pay for training and call-back hours worked. Instead, all of those hours should have been earned overtime pay, the commission ruled in an Aug. 1 decision that the Town Board will discuss in closed session tonight.
It was unclear Monday how much money is at stake.
Firefighters union officials have contended that the town may owe more than $200,000 in back pay and accrued interest. The town has disputed that.
The town’s 2007 Fire Department budget was about $1.1 million.
Attorneys representing the town and the union in the long-running dispute did not return calls for comment. Also unavailable for comment were the town chairman, town administrator, town fire chief and Teamsters Local 695 leaders.
According to the commission’s decision:
Town firefighters formed a union in 1997. The town and union failed to reach agreement on a first contract covering 1998 to 2000. The dispute went to an arbitrator, who sided with the union.
The Town Board voted in December 2000 to pay $275,571 under the assumption that it resolved all back pay issues. The union disagreed.
The state labor commission in 2001 ruled that the town still owed overtime pay for training and call-back hours worked.
The two sides continued to litigate the overtime dispute, and mediation failed, leading to the commission’s Aug. 1 ruling in favor of the union.
Calculating the additional amount owed might be difficult. The commission noted that payroll records were difficult to “reconstruct” for the late 1990s.
If an agreement cannot be reached, a commission hearing will develop a record.
Copyright 2007 The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel