Connecticut State Police Union Files Class Action Over Allegedly Unpaid Work During Meal Breaks

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The state of Connecticut and several labor officials are the defendants in a proposed class action lawsuit filed by the Connecticut State Police Union and its president over alleged wage and hour violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).

Filed on behalf of all active and retired state troopers in the union, the 38-page complaint focuses on a collective bargaining agreement in place from July 1, 2015, through June 30, 2018, that apparently denies compensation for state troopers who work through meal periods. According to the lawsuit, state troopers ordinarily work nine-hour days for five continuous days before being granted three consecutive days off. During work days, troopers, the case says, are usually provided with one half-hour meal period that is not counted as time worked nor calculated as part of an individual’s regular rate of pay for the purposes of tallying overtime.

“During the lunch period State Troopers must be made available to be contacted and to be dispatched,” the suit reads. “State Troopers must take their meal period within their patrol area and must be available for service at all times.”

The lawsuit argues that the collective bargaining agreement between Connecticut and its state troopers stipulates that they’re to be paid overtime in compliance with FLSA provisions.