Update: Warren County has settled the plaintiffs’ lawsuit for $50,000, including more than $17,500 in actual lost wages, the same amount in “liquidated damages,” and nearly $15,000 in attorney fees. The case was formally dismissed May 31, 2026.
Original article:
The job of a 911 dispatcher can involve lots of long, stressful hours. The Warren County Sheriff’s dispatchers say they haven’t been paid for those hours as they should.
Eleven current dispatchers are suing Warren County alleging they have wrongfully been denied overtime pay dating back at least to January 2020. According to their complaint, filed Aug. 5, the county has improperly classified them as “exempt” under federal labor law.
The complaint does not specify how much the plaintiffs believe they are owed, and their attorney, Christopher Kragnes, declined to give an estimate. He did say, though, that he believes “this would be the type of case” eligible under labor law for liquidated damages, which can entitle workers to twice the amount the court finds they were underpaid.
Warren County Attorney Doug Eichholz told the Register that the county has not yet been served with the complaint, and cannot comment on pending litigation.
Union agreement calls for overtime
If the complaint is correct that the dispatchers have been denied overtime, that could violate not just labor law, but the county’s collective bargaining agreement with their union.
The Register reviewed a copy, provided by Kragnes, of the bargaining agreement between Warren County and Teamsters Local 238 that was in place from July 2020 through June 2023. For the most recent year, the pay scale for county dispatchers over the past year ran from $24.28 per hour to $28.57.
The agreement also specifically states that “for dispatchers, overtime worked at the direction of the employer shall be compensated in pay at the rate of one and one-half times the straight hourly rate of the employee.”
The union is not a party to the dispatchers’ lawsuit.
William Morris covers courts for the Des Moines Register. He can be contacted at wrmorris2@registermedia.com, 715-573-8166 or on Twitter at @DMRMorris.
This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Warren County 911 dispatchers are suing the county for 3 years of unpaid overtime
Reporting by William Morris, Des Moines Register / Des Moines Register
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By William Morris, Des Moines Register | USA TODAY Network
