Michigan Supervisors' Office & Professional Employees Intern. Union v. Michigan Dept. of Corrections
| Decision Date | 13 July 1995 |
| Docket Number | Nos. 94-1203,94-1264,s. 94-1203 |
| Citation | 61 F.3d 904 |
| Parties | NOTICE: Sixth Circuit Rule 24(c) states that citation of unpublished dispositions is disfavored except for establishing res judicata, estoppel, or the law of the case and requires service of copies of cited unpublished dispositions of the Sixth Circuit. MICHIGAN SUPERVISORS' OFFICE & PROFESSIONAL EMPLOYEES INTERNATIONAL UNION, William T. Gannon, on behalf of himself and all other similarly situated supervisory security personnel employed by Defendant; Travis U. Jones, on behalf of himself and all other similarly situated civilian employees of Defendant, Plaintiffs-Appellants, Cross-Appellees, v. MICHIGAN DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS; Michigan Department of Civil Service, Defendants-Appellees, Cross-Appellants. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Sixth Circuit |
BEFORE: CONTIE, MILBURN, and SILER, Circuit Judges.
Plaintiffs, Michigan Supervisors' Office & Professional Employees International Union, William T. Gannon, and Travis Jones, appeal and defendants, the Michigan Department of Corrections ("MDOC") and the Michigan Department of Civil Service ("MDCS"), cross-appeal the district court's orders and judgments in this class action seeking recovery of unpaid overtime under the Fair Labor Standards Act ("FLSA"), 29 U.S.C. Secs. 201-219.
In plaintiffs'appeal, the issues are (1) whether the district court erred in granting summary judgment for defendants on plaintiffs' claims for overtime in Count I and II of their second amended complaint, (2) whether the district court erred in ordering that no additional plaintiffs could "opt in" to this action after July 23, 1993, (3) whether the district court erred in denying plaintiffs' request for liquidated damages, costs, and attorney's fees, (4) whether the district court erred in dismissing plaintiffs' pendent state law claim for breach of Michigan's compensation plan in Count III of their second amended complaint, (5) whether the district court erred in dismissing plaintiffs' claims concerning their rights under various grievance awards for failure to exhaust administrative remedies, and (6) whether the district court erred in determining that sergeants and lieutenants are not entitled to reimbursement for budget-related furlough days because they are not paid on a salary basis and are entitled to overtime.
In defendants' cross-appeal the issues presented are (1) whether the district court's application of the FLSA to plaintiffs violates the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution, and (2) whether the district court erred when it found that the FLSA required defendants to reimburse salaried employees for deductions in wages made as the result of four budget-related furlough days in August of 1991. For the reasons that follow, we affirm in part and reverse in part.
Plaintiffs are employees of the MDOC. However, they are divided into two classes for purposes of this litigation: the supervisor class consists of the supervisors of the security personnel in MDOC correctional institutions; the civilian class consists of civilian employees of MDOC. Plaintiffs have been divided into two classes because under the FLSA, they would be eligible to receive overtime compensation, if they do not fall within an exception, at different rates: civilians are eligible to receive overtime pay at a rate equal to one-and-one half times their regular hourly rate in excess of forty hours per week, whereas supervisors are eligible to receive overtime pay for hours worked in excess of eighty-six hours in a fourteen day (biweekly) pay period.
MDOC has not paid overtime to the supervisors for hours they worked in excess of 86 hours in a biweekly pay period, nor has it paid overtime compensation to civilians for hours they worked in excess of forty hours per work week. Instead, plaintiffs have received compensatory time off on an hour-for-hour basis, one hour of compensatory time for one hour of overtime, for the extra hours that they have worked. J.A. 191-99.
Plaintiffs are subjected to rigid attendance and timekeeping requirements by MDOC. They are required to keep set working hours, and are required to record the actual hours they work by either punching a time clock, submitting a written time sheet, or both.
Plaintiffs assert that MDOC subjects their pay to reductions for absences from work of less than a full day's, i.e., eight hours, duration if the absences cannot be "covered" as vacation, sick leave, personal leave, or accrued compensatory time. For this assertion, plaintiffs rely on the provision of the State of Michigan's Compensation Plan, Sec. 11 - Sick Leave Standard, II.d, which states:
Sick leave shall not be credited or used in anticipation of future leave credits. In the absence of applicable leave credits, compensation reduction for the time lost shall be made for the work period in which the absence occurred. The employee may elect not to use annual leave to cover such absence.
J.A. 274-75. In response, defendants have submitted the affidavit of Jan Miller, the Director of Labor Relations for MDOC. Miller's affidavit states in relevant part that
[t]he duties of each of the Plaintiffs listed in Class I and Class II of Plaintiffs' lawsuit fall within the definition of a bona fide executive, administrative, or professional capacity and hence these employees have been considered to be exempt from the overtime requirements of its Fair Labor Standards Act pursuant to 29 U.S.C. Sec. 213(a)(1).
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This section [Michigan's Compensation Plan, Sec. 11 - Sick Leave Standard, II, d] contemplates absences of 8 hours or more. It is generally applied in situations for employees granted a medical leave of absence prior to application and approval of such a leave of absence.
7. Employees ineligible for overtime, who have absences of less than 8 hours duration, in the absence of available leave credits or compensatory time, do not incur a reduction in pay. If such a reduction occurred it would be in error or inadvertent. The Michigan Department of Corrections Policy Directive PD-DWA-01.02 ... states the following in the timekeeping section:
"Employees shall not take time off without the use of leave credits unless on an approved leave of absence ..."
The subsection on late arrivals only provides for lost time (reduction in pay) for employees eligible for cash payment of overtime.
8. It is the clear intent of the MDOC that no pay reduction occur for less than 8 hours. There is no provision in this policy allowing deductions for absences of less than one day for employees ineligible for overtime in the absence of available leave credits or compensatory time.
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While Plaintiffs are expected to adhere to certain shift arrivals and departures, and are required to punch a time clock or otherwise maintain timesheets, this policy has been implemented by the MDOC in part for accountability to the taxpayers of this state, as a mechanized means of collecting time records, and for security purposes, for protection of the employees in the event of a prison uprising or other emergency situation, and to determine who is actually present at the facility. The policy is not intended as a punitive measure.
Finally, in a letter dated June 26, 1991, plaintiffs were notified that due to budgetary restrictions, a revenue shortfall, classified state employees would be subject to temporary layoff, a furlough, on four specific days, consecutive or non-consecutive, in August of 1991. The record indicates that the furloughs of plaintiffs in this action occurred during the biweekly pay periods ending on August 17, 1991 and August 31, 1991. J.A. 576.
This appeal involves a class action brought pursuant to section 16 of the FLSA, 29 U.S.C. Sec. 216. There are two classes of plaintiffs in this action: (1) the supervisor class, which consists of class representative William T. Gannon and similarly situated supervisors of security personnel in correctional institutions run by MDOC; and (2) the civilian class, which consists of class representative Travis U. Jones and similarly situated civilian employees of the MDOC.
Plaintiffs filed their complaint in this action on July 9, 1991, and they filed their first amended complaint on July 16, 1991. Plaintiffs filed their second amended complaint on January 8, 1993.
The second amended complaint contains five counts. Count I alleges that the MDOC violated the FLSA by failing to pay overtime compensation to the members of the supervisor class. Count II alleges that MDOC violated the FLSA by failing to pay overtime compensation to the members of the civilian class. Count III alleges that MDOC breached its contract of employment with all the plaintiffs by failing to comply with the requirements set forth in the Michigan Civil Service Compensation Plan. Count IV alleges that MDOC and MDCS violated the rights of the supervisor class, established by Civil Service procedures and civil service grievance awards, by failing to pay them overtime compensation for the time they spent attending mandatory daily line-up meetings prior to the start of their shifts. Count V alleges that the MDOC violated the FLSA by failing to pay the plaintiffs their full salary for certain workweeks in which they worked a part of the week and were furloughed by MDOC for the remainder of the week due to budgetary constraints.
First, with regard to the claims of the supervisory class plaintiffs for the violation of their rights under the grievance awards in count IV, the district court in an opinion and order issued on June 3, 1992, granted defendants' motion to dismiss Count IV of plaintiff's first amended complaint under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure ("Fed. R. Civ. P.") 12(b)(6) for failure to state a claim upon which relief can be granted. The district court found that Count IV failed to state a claim upon which relief can be granted "[b]ecause [it] allege[d] violations of grievance awards...
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