00-1834 Howard v. City of Springfield

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“[I]f the City were able to use premium payments in the manner contemplated by the district court, the City would be the recipient of the windfall, and in fact would be placed in a substantially better position than if it had complied with the overtime requirements of the FLSA all along. An example may help illustrate this point. If the City complied with the FLSA all along, it would have paid the overtime each pay period as it accrued. Subsequent premiums payments could not be used to reduce those overtime payments, because they would have already have been calculated and paid. For instance, a premium payment made for the Thanksgiving holiday would not be used by a conforming employer to offset overtime paid back in March. But that is precisely what the City seeks to do here. It is contrary to the language and the purpose of the statute.”

Affirmed in part, reversed in part, and remanded.

CONCURRING/DISSENTING OPINION: Manion, J., concurring in part, and dissenting in part: “Forcing an employer, who has given a premium rate of pay for overtime, to forego the receipt of credit and to pay additional overtime punishes the employer without regard to whether it was attempting to avoid its obligation to adequately compensate employees for extra hours worked. Plaintiffs have not pointed to any regulations, statutes or current cases, which state that there is a congressional will to penalize an employer that inadvertently fails to follow FLSA by, in effect, assessing civil money damages beyond those enunciated in 29 U.S.C. sec. 216(b). Conversely, there is a clear congressional intent to allow an employer to offset premium rates of pay against overtime owed. 29 U.S.C. sec. 207(h). If I were to follow plaintiffs’ reasoning, plain- tiffs would receive a windfall and the purposes and goals of the statute would not be served.

Therefore, defendant may offset the … premium payments against overtime owed.”

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Central District of Illinois, Scott, J., Rovner, J.