City employees file lawsuit

BRAWLEY — Multiple former and current Brawley city employees recently filed a federal lawsuit against the city seeking three years of back pay for alleged overtime compensation violations.

The alleged violations stem from the city’s practice of not including its “cash in lieu” payments to employees when determining their regular and overtime rate of pay, the court complaint stated.

The cash in lieu payments is compensation provided to employees who have opted out of receiving health and welfare benefits as part of the city’s flexible benefits plan.

The lawsuit, filed April 8, includes 19 past and present members of Teamsters Local 542 who also seek attorneys’ fees and costs for the alleged Fair Labor Standards Act violations.

In addition to the back pay and legal fees, the lawsuit seeks to compel the city to establish a regular and overtime payment rate that includes as remuneration the cash in lieu payments and payments made to benefit providers on behalf of all other employees participating in the flexible benefits plan.

Plaintiffs allege that they, and other possibly impacted employees, are entitled to have their regular and overtime rate of pay determined in accordance with a June 2016 ruling by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.

That ruling (Flores v. City of San Gabriel) determined that the city’s cash in lieu payments must be included when determining regular and, by extension, overtime rate of payment for non-exempt hourly employees.

The city of Brawley declined to comment on the lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California. It has 21 days from April 9 to respond with an answer or motion to the suit, or risk a default judgment in plaintiffs’ favor, court records stated.

Teamsters Local 542 represents the city’s wastewater and water system operators and personnel, maintenance and landscape workers, as well as animal control officers and utility workers.