Those who pledged to protect and serve say Dallas County has not fairly paid them to do so.
Dallas County Sheriff’s Deputies filed a class action lawsuit in federal court, saying they’re owed years of overtime pay.
It’s a problem that Dallas County Sheriff’s Association President Christopher Dyer says dates back decades.
“We can go back to 2003 when Dallas County would force employees to work overtime, and they would only give them comp time. Well, now in 2023, they’ve come back and decided they didn’t want us to have all of this comp time anymore and they refuse to pay employees for that time they worked over the years,” said Dyer.
“We have officers who have hundreds and hundreds and even thousands of hours that the county is simply trying to take away from them without compensation at all,” said Texas Municipal Police Association Executive Director Kevin Lawrence.
Lawrence said the problem boils down to how the county tracks that time, banking it in different categories.
The lawsuit claims some of that time was lost during a software glitch and later a policy change.
Lawrence said the suit is about paying employees what they’re owed.
“They’re trying to make ends meet. They’re relying on every dollar that comes in to feed their families, put shows on their feet, etcetera,” he said.
“Hopefully, the county wants to resolve this. Hopefully, the county wants to take care of their employees and this simply is a matter of records have been lost. Somebody’s implemented a policy wrong. Somebody’s pushed a wrong button somewhere and they want to fix it. But so far, all the efforts that we have made, that these employees have made to resolve this without going to litigation have fallen on deaf ears,” said Lawrence.
When NBC5 contacted Dallas County about the lawsuit, a spokesperson responded saying, “The Judge [Clay Jenkins] does not comment on pending litigation.”