Unpaid Overtime Lawsuit Loses Class Action Status

A lawsuit claiming that workers were not paid overtime has had its class action status removed.

According to a report from the Cook County Record, 94 Joliet workers were part of a lawsuit against a Caterpillar contractor that had allegedly failed to pay employees overtime.

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Judge Charles P. Kocoras said the claims of the plaintiffs were “too individualized to pursue as a whole,” according to the report.

The suit was originally filed in June 2013 by workers against Group O, claiming it violated the U.S. Fair Labor Standards Act. Group O helped staff the Joliet Caterpillar plant.

The plaintiffs said Group O had them working before and after their shifts and during meal breaks, but without paying them for doing so.

“To short the employees, Group O allegedly programmed its electronic timekeeping and payroll system to round off employee clock-ins and clock-outs to scheduled start- and end-of-shift times – when the clock-ins and clock-outs were within 15 minutes of the scheduled start- and end-of-shift times,” the article states.

When the lawsuit was classified as a class action, Group O filed a motion to have it stripped of that distinction.

“There is no efficiency gained by trying all the factual questions and defenses in one trial,” Kocoras said, according to the Cook County Record.

>>more via the Cook County Record