TUPELO, Miss. (AP) - Police officers in northeast Mississippi’s largest city are accepting settlement checks for back wages after a federal investigation found the city violated overtime rules.
Tupelo city spokeswoman Leesha Faulkner says all 91 officers still working for the city accepted their shares of the $857,000 settlement Thursday.
Faulkner tells the Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal that the city will contact nearly 30 former Tupelo officers individually to ask them to accept settlement payments.
The Tupelo Police Department changed timekeeping practices in December 2016, but may have failed to correctly record hours for 20 or more years previously. The U.S. Labor Department began investigating complaints in the summer. Its settlement covers from August 2015 to November 2016.
Mayor Jason Shelton says Tupelo cooperated with federal authorities and didn’t oppose paying the back wages.
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Information from: Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal, http://djournal.com
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