Four security shift supervisors at Vermont Yankee who sued the company have won five years of unpaid overtime.
The ruling may apply to other supervisors as well, and Vermont Yankee’s parent company faces similar suits in other states.
On Thursday, the U.S. District Court jury in Burlington found that Vermont Yankee “willfully” violated the supervisors’ right to overtime pay. The company faces similar lawsuits in other states, and may owe back pay to other workers at Vermont Yankee.
Judge William Sessions has yet to determine the exact amount of back pay and damages.
Josh Diamond, lead counsel for the plaintiffs with co-counsel Joseph Galanes, of Diamond & Robinson, P.C., said the total would be “in the hundreds of thousands of dollars.” The plaintiffs claimed to have worked more than 5,500 hours of overtime in the past five years.
A spokesman for Entergy said the company could not comment on the case or its next steps because the final judgment had not yet been entered.
“However, regardless of the eventual outcome, Entergy is committed to safely, securely and reliably operating Vermont Yankee through the end of its current operating cycle,” spokesman Martin Cohn said by email. “Entergy always strives to create a fair, equitable and safe work environment for all of our employees, and the company remains committed to this objective.”
The plaintiffs — David Banford, Scott McGratty, Robert Miller and Gary Stratton — all have worked for Entergy Nuclear Operations, Inc., since 2009. That’s when Entergy, Vermont Yankee’s parent corporation, brought the Vernon facility’s security force in-house.
Previously, the four had worked for the Wackenhut Corporation, a private security contractor that faced serious criticism for security lapses at nuclear facilities around the country, including Vermont Yankee in 2008.
While employed by Wackenhut, the plaintiffs were compensated for overtime, Diamond said. But the payments stopped when they transitioned to employment with Entergy.
Both federal and state laws regulate payment of overtime to employees who work more than 40 hours per week. Unless the business or workers meet certain exemptions, employees are supposed to earn at least one and one-half times their regular wage rates for overtime work, according to the Vermont Department of Labor.
It’s up to employers to prove that workers are exempt from overtime pay, Diamond said. And Entergy failed to do so, he said.
“Our argument was they had taken no reasonable efforts to make a determination that (the plaintiffs) were exempt,” Diamond said in an interview Friday morning. “And the jury agreed. They found Entergy reckless in willfully disregarding my clients’ rights.”
The jury deliberated for more than six hours, Diamond said, after a four-day trial in federal district court. Because the lawsuit was filed in 2012, and because the jury determined Entergy’s failure to pay was a “willful” violation, the plaintiffs will be entitled to all five years of backpay.
About 15 other Entergy employees also work as security shift supervisors at Vermont Yankee, and also have not been paid for overtime, Diamond said.
“It seems to me in light of this verdict, Entergy should be paying all of its security shift supervisors all the overtime owed, not just my clients.”
Diamond said security officers, unlike security shift supervisors, are covered by a union contract. Entergy could not respond Friday to confirm that the security officers are paid overtime. Vermont Yankee security officials above the shift supervisor level arguably are exempt from overtime because of their managerial duties, Diamond said.
In addition to the dispute at Vermont Yankee, Entergy is fighting lawsuits alleging violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act in other states, including Massachusetts and Louisiana.
