The Department of Labor (DOL) has reached a $7 million agreement to settle a longstanding dispute over unpaid overtime wages, according to the DOL’s bargaining unit, American Federation of Government Employees Local 12.
The unpaid overtime was due to employees’ being misclassified as exempt from overtime when they were not, according to attorneys for the union. Another factor was working off the clock, during lunch breaks and after normal work hours.
The overtime dispute covered the years of 2003 through 2013, during the tenures of Elaine Chao and Hilda Solis as labor secretary and George W. Bush and Barack Obama as president.
The union represents 3,100 DOL employees, but it’s not clear how many of them will share in the pot.