Tennessee, Commissioner Facing Child Safety Case Managers' FLSA Lawsuit

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Three hourly paid case managers employed by the Office of Child Safety overseen by Tennessee’s Department of Children’s Services have filed a proposed collective action against the state and Commissioner Bonnie Hommich over alleged Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) violations. The plaintiffs claim they and similarly situated workers, within the last three years, were never “fully relieved” from their work duties during unpaid meal breaks. Further, the individuals allege they were not paid at the mandatory time-and-a-half overtime rate for all hours worked past 40 in a given workweek.

The office in which the plaintiffs and proposed collective members work is responsible for Tennessee’s child abuse hotline. The plaintiffs claim that hotline employees are forced to “log out” of the defendants’ timekeeping system for one-hour unpaid meal breaks during shifts.

“[The defendant were] aware that [the plaintiffs] and other similarly situated hotline employees performed compensable work duties, ate part and, at times, all of their lunch while performing compensable job duties, completed and finalized reports and were not fully relived of their compensable job duties, while ‘logged out’ for such one-hour unpaid meal breaks, without being compensated for such time at the applicable overtime compensation rate as required by the Fair Labor standards Act, during all time relevant herein,” the complaint reads.