100 Hours of Overtime–Safety Hazard?

Members of the Hamilton County (Tenn.) council are questioning time cards submitted by dispatchers, indicating that several went over the 20-hour per-week limit set by the agency, and in one case totaling 100 hours in a single week. In one July week, 26 employees put in 496 hours of overtime, and in another week they worked 366 hours. County council member Deborah Scott told a reporter, “If it becomes an unsafe situation, we have to worry.” John Steurmer, executive director of the comm center, said dispatchers who went over 20 hours in a week had violated policy, and admitted the incidences had “slipped through.” He explained that the city and county just merged their separate center’s and that training is on-going. The center has 125 employees, and 13 positions are vacant, Steurmer said. He also pointed to a specific policy–overtime is granted for work beyond eight hours in a single day, not time over 40 hours in a single work-week. “They’re taking advantage of that,” he said. Read more here.