Nashville Electric Service paying $2.5 million settlement for unpaid overtime
Nashville's power company just got a $2.5 million bill.
A federal judge approved a multimillion-dollar settlement from Nashville Electric Service to more than 100 employees who sued NES for lost overtime wages over the last three years, court records show. Attorney Dave Garrison announced the settlement in a news release Thursday.
“This settlement secures a recovery of significant wages owed to some of the hardest working men and women in Nashville and Davidson County who ensure that our city maintains power, even after devastating storms,” Garrison said in the release.
The current and former line supervisors, underground supervisors and meter supervisors challenged what they said was NES' requirement that they work five hours of so-called "professional time" each week without pay, according to the lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee.
Although NES claimed that it paid its supervisors a salary, the supervisors alleged that NES did not guarantee them a minimum amount of pay each week, making them hourly workers under the Fair Labor Standards Act, according to the news release.
The lead plaintiff in the case, retired NES supervisor James Cayton, wrote in a court declaration that NES' unpaid "professional time" requirement dates back to the 1970s. He wrote he knew many workers who wanted to challenge this practice for years, but were afraid to do so.
The settlement provides an average of $20,000 in lost overtime wages to the plaintiffs who worked for NES from October 2017 to October 2020, when the lawsuit was filed. Garrison said other eligible supervisors who didn't sign onto the lawsuit now have 60 days to sign on and receive a portion of the settlement.
“This practice may be somewhat common in the utility industry, but, in our opinion, it defies the law,” said Josh Frank, another attorney who represented the supervisors, in the news release.
NES President and CEO Teresa Broyles-Aplin said in a statement Friday morning that NES believes all payments were lawful but that it chose to settle the lawsuit to avoid the "time, expense and distraction" that comes with litigation.
"We have addressed the apparent confusion and misunderstanding regarding certain aspects of our pay practices alleged in the legal action," Broyles-Alpin said in the statement provided through its marketing agency. "NES will pay the settlement out of our operating revenues, as we do with any other business expense."
This story was updated to include comment from NES provided after publication.
Evan Mealins is the justice reporter for The Tennessean. Contact him at emealins@gannett.com or follow him on Twitter @EvanMealins.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Nashville Electric Service settlement $2.5 million overtime wages
