This overtime pay case was filed on September 12, 2007.  The lead named Plaintiff is Lawrence Rodriguez, a former Blue Collar Union President and presently a supervisory employee at the Water Authority.   

The first of these overtime pay cases was filed by Sam Bregman in May, 2002.  Plaintiffs charged that the City was erroneously calculating overtime pay so as to deny many city employees the pay they were guaranteed under the Fair Labor Standards Act, the federal statute that sets overtime pay requirements.  After certification of the class action a total of 760 employees and former employees opted-in to the case as Plaintiffs.

The City claimed that for most of its employees who worked overtime it made two calculations:  one under the provisions of the collective bargaining agreements, the other under the FLSA.  The City says that for each pay period and each employee it selected the higher of the two and paid overtime wages accordingly.

The Plaintiffs' attorneys argued that  the "regular rate of pay" used to calculate time-and-a-half overtime pay had to include both the provisions of the negotiated contract and the provisions of the FLSA, thereby giving a substantially higher rate and a higher overtime payment than the City had been paying for many years. 

In the decision on cross motions for summary judgment issued in the Chavez case on August 10, 2007, U.S. District Judge Judith Herrera agreed with Plaintiffs and granted summary judgment in their favor on the primary issue of calculating overtime pay.  This could mean substantially more pay and recovery of back overtime pay for police, fire, corrections, blue collar, and other city employees.

This second overtime pay case is for those employees and former-employees who did not opt-in to the previous case.  Check the Chavez case web page for a list of those who are in that case.  If you are already in the Chavez case, you should not submit a consent form in this case.  The case is very similar to the original Chavez case.  A copy of the Complaint is here:

RODRIGUEZ vs. CITY OF ALBUQUERQUE COMPLAINT

If there is a recovery of damages for back overtime wages the applicable time period is two or three (if the City's violations are found to be "willful")  years prior to the filing of the consent form to opt-in to the case.  For the maximum recovery do not delay returning the form.  To join the Rodriguez case, all you need to do is print out the consent form that is here:

CONSENT FORM TO JOIN LAWSUIT (PDF)

CONSENT FORM TO JOIN LAWSUIT (WORD)

LIST OF PLAINTIFFS

Please fill out both pages and sign them.  The first page is the form that will be submitted to the Court so you can join the case.  The second page is information for your attorneys and your agreement to be represented by us.  Of course, we will not release or disclose your personal information, but to be safe any attorney-client confidential information should be discussed separately.

After they have been signed these forms can be faxed, mailed, scanned and e-mailed, or delivered to: