AUSTIN CO. & SHERIFF BEING SUED BY DEPUTIES & DISPATCHERS
A group of sixteen Austin County Sheriff’s deputies and dispatchers are involved in a class-action lawsuit against Sheriff Jack W. Brandes and the county over unpaid overtime.
Deputy Ernest Cox filed the suit October 31st in Texas Southern District Court, alleging that Austin County violated the Fair Labor Standards Act by not compensating them for overtime they worked.
According to The Sealy News, the group claims they were not compensated at time-and-a-half when they worked over 40 hours a week. It also alleges a failure to maintain accurate timesheets by the Sheriff’s office.
The complaint also states “Austin County knew or reasonably should have known that Cox worked in excess of forty hours per week.”
Cox, who has been deputy sheriff in Austin County since October 2012, demanded trial by jury.
The list of plaintiff’s includes a number of dispatchers, at least one detective and some who are married to deputies, but the document states they all “regularly work in excess of 40 hours per week” and that they “are not paid overtime for the hours they worked in excess of 40 per week.”
The sheriff’s department declined to comment on ongoing litigation, but on Nov. 10, after an executive session in Austin County Commissioners Court, a motion carried to have outside vendor Bill Dougherty audit the timesheets for all sheriff’s deputies over the last three years