Beck v. City of Cleveland, Ohio, 02-3669.

Citation390 F.3d 912
Decision Date12 November 2004
Docket NumberNo. 02-3669.,02-3669.
PartiesRobert BECK, et al., Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. CITY OF CLEVELAND, Ohio, Defendant-Appellee.
CourtUnited States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals (6th Circuit)

ARGUED: Michael Leibig, Zwerdling, Paul, Leibig, Kahn & Wolly, Alexandria, VA, for Appellants. William F. Schmitz, Johnson & Angelo, Cleveland, OH, for Appellee. ON BRIEF: Michael Leibig, Zwerdling, Paul, Leibig, Kahn & Wolly, Alexandria, VA, Patrick A. D'Angelo, Cleveland, OH, for Appellants. William F. Schmitz, Johnson & Angelo, Cleveland, OH, for Appellee.

Before: DAUGHTREY and GILMAN, Circuit Judges; HAYNES, District Judge.*

HAYNES, District Judge.

Plaintiffs, Robert Beck, President of the Cleveland Police Patrolmen's Association, and past and present Cleveland Police Officers (the "Police Officers"), appeal the district court's final judgment dismissing their claims for violations of Section 207(o)(5) of the Fair Labor Standards Act ("FLSA"), 29 U.S.C. § 207(o)(5), by the defendant, City of Cleveland ("the City"). The district court granted the City's motion for summary judgment on the Police Officers' FLSA claims. The Police Officers' appeal is limited to their claims about the City's compensatory leave policy arising out of the denials of their requests for their accrued compensatory leave. The Police Officers contend that the district court erred by refusing to give controlling weight to opinions of the Secretary of the Department of Labor (DOL) that under the undue disruption rule in Section 207(o)(5), a municipality cannot refuse to honor a police officer's timely leave request solely to avoid payment of overtime to substitute police officers. The City contends that its compensatory leave system does not violate Section 207(o)(5) because Congress amended the FLSA to reduce the financial burdens of the FLSA upon governmental entities; that under Section 207(o)(5), the City can deny compensatory leave where the payment of overtime to substitute police officers would impose a financial burden upon the City; and that granting the officers' leave requests would result in undue disruption of the City's police services within the meaning Section 207(o)(5).

For the reasons set forth below, we REVERSE the district court's judgment granting the City's motion for summary judgment on the Police Officers' compensatory leave claim and REMAND this action for additional factual findings on this claim. First, we conclude that the statutory phrase "unduly disrupt" in Section 207(o)(5) is ambiguous. Thus, we conclude that judicial deference is due to the Secretary's opinions that the payment of overtime to honor an officer's request for compensatory time does not qualify as unduly disruptive under Section 207(o)(5). Hence, the City cannot deny a timely compensatory leave request solely for financial reasons. In addition, from a review of this record, we conclude that the City has not proved that granting the Police Officers' otherwise timely requests for compensatory leave would result in an unreasonable financial burden and thereby cause an undue disruption of its operations. Absent a clear showing by the City of undue disruption of its police services, due to severe financial constraints to pay overtime to substitute officers, the City's denials of Police Officers' timely requests for accrued compensation leave must be held to violate Section 207(o)(5).

A. Procedural History

On May 27, 1999, several current and former Cleveland Police Officers1 filed their complaint in the district court alleging that the City failed to comply with the FLSA. The Police Officers' specific claims were that the City miscalculated their regular rates of pay under the FLSA, violated FLSA rules in denying compensatory leave, failed to pay for time spent transporting City vehicles, and placed illegal restrictions on their use of sick leave. The Police Officers also asserted that the City's violations were intentional, entitling them to liquidated damages. The City denied the Police Officers' allegations about its pay and leave practices.

With the parties' agreement, the district court bifurcated the action: first, to resolve the liability issue of whether the City's wage and hour practices in its police department violated the FLSA, and the second, if necessary, to determine the proper measure of damages for any violations. The parties also agreed to a discovery plan under which each police officer would respond to a questionnaire and after its review of the responses, the City would choose ten officers to depose as well as Robert Beck, the Police Officers' Union's president. The parties also agreed that those officers' depositions would be binding on all Police Officers in the action. Under the agreed discovery plan, the Police Officers deposed two City department supervisors who were responsible for time keeping and payroll.

Upon completion of discovery, both parties submitted cross-motions for summary judgment. The district judge referred the motions to a magistrate judge who filed a report and recommendation. Relying principally upon Aiken v. Memphis, 190 F.3d 753 (6th Cir.1999),2 the magistrate judge recommended that the district judge grant the City's motion for summary judgment, which included the Police Officers' FLSA claims about the City's compensatory leave practices. The Police Officers objected to the magistrate judge's report and recommendation, contending that the Secretary's opinions on Section 207(o) (5) controlled their compensatory leave claims and that Aiken was inapplicable. The City did not respond to the Police Officers' objections.

The district court adopted the magistrate judge's recommendation that defendant's compensatory time system be found to comply with § 207(o)(5), citing Aiken. The district court concluded that the "unduly disruptive" language in Section 207(o)(5) is not ambiguous and that the Secretary's opinions on Section 207(o)(5) were neither binding nor persuasive. The district court reasoned, in sum, that requiring the City to pay overtime wages to substitute officers would impose an unreasonable financial burden on the City's ability to provide police services of an acceptable quality and quantity. In the district court's view, such a financial imposition was unduly disruptive and was contrary to the congressional intent underlying the 1985 FLSA amendments establishing compensatory leave, including Section 207(o) (5).

B. Factual Background

The City uses compensatory time as an alternative method of paying overtime to its police officers. On April 1, 1995, the City and the Cleveland Police Patrolmen's Association ("CPPA") entered into a Collective Bargaining Agreement ("CBA") allowing overtime to be paid in compensatory time for law enforcement officers whose work exceeds 171 hours within a 28-day period, as permitted by 29 U.S.C. 207(k). The CBA expired on May 31, 1998, but with the parties' agreement, its provisions remain in effect.

Under Article XI, Section 15(m) of the CBA, a Cleveland police officer who is eligible to be compensated for overtime pay can elect on a quarterly basis either compensatory time or cash. For awards of compensatory time, the City awards 90 minutes of compensatory time for each hour of overtime. The City pays cash to those officers who have already accumulated in excess of 480 hours of FLSA compensatory time — the maximum permitted by the FLSA — at time and one-half for all hours worked above that unit. Id. Those officers who have not reached the maximum are paid one hour of cash for 30 minutes of overtime. Id. Under Article XI, Section 15(c) of the CBA, "[t]he City shall be the sole judge of the necessity for overtime.... There shall be no pyramiding of overtime or other premium pay compensation."

Under Article XI, Sections 15(k) and (j) of the CBA, a police officer may elect to use accrued compensatory time as either "compensatory time off" or as a "family day." According to Article XI, Section (k), leave for compensatory time is subject to two conditions:

Compensatory Time Off. Compensatory time off shall be granted [1] in accordance with operational needs and [2] upon reasonable request by the employee requesting such compensatory time off. Requests for the use of compensatory time will be considered and granted to the employee who first requested the time off, unless an emergency exists.

(emphasis added).

As stated in the CBA, an officer's compensatory leave requests are subject to the City police department's "operational needs." The CBA, however, does not define "operational needs." The commander of human resources for the City's police department describes "operational needs" as "the minimum numbering of zone and special response cars required for a platoon in a district based on the department review of calls for service, per car per district." Robert Beck, the union's president, disputed this characterization of "operational needs," and stated that "there's no stated minimum" of cars, rather "on a daily basis," "it falls under the bailiwick of the [officer in command] to make a decision that day."

To request compensatory leave time, an officer submits an overtime card or places his or her name on the district's calendar that is maintained for that purpose. Once the district's officer-in-charge is satisfied with the number of officers on duty, compensatory leave is awarded on a first come/first served basis. Yet, police supervisors can deny any request for compensatory time off if a special need exists. As a matter of policy, the City does not allow a substitute officer to earn overtime compensation to work in the place of the officer who requests compensatory leave.

As to the operation of the City's compensatory leave practices, the District Court made the following findings of fact on the amount of compensatory time utilized by the City's police officers:

In 1998, 182,651.75 hours of compensatory time,...

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