Federal Judge To Decide Whether Chicago Cops Get Overtime Pay For Checking Email
CHICAGO (CBS) -- It's now up to a federal judge to decide whether Chicago police officers will get paid overtime for answering calls, emails and texts on their department-issued smartphones when they're off-duty, reports WBBM's Nancy Harty.
In a lawsuit filed five years ago, officers claimed they were afraid to file for overtime pay for fear of retribution for the half hour a day they say they average, a pace their attorney Paul Geiger says didn't abate after the department issued guidelines telling them not to.
Geiger says he doesn't think there will be huge ramifications for the suit because most of Corporate America has already addressed the issue.
"I think the city of Chicago and particularly the Chicago Police Department really is the stubborn one who can't be told what to do and is just not going to follow the law until a judge forces them to," Geiger said.
The city declined comment on the case but a Law Department spokesman says in general the city believes the suit is without merit because the department has an established process for receiving overtime.