The Ventura County Grand Jury is questioning why just 75 percent of the county government's workforce is eligible for overtime pay, saying the public entity could be exposed to substantial risk if employees are wrongly excluded.
In a report issued last week, jurors cited concerns over litigation, the awarding of back pay and possible penalties.
In a related finding, the panel saw the potential for " significant abuse" of an administrative leave policy for salaried employees working unusually long hours. They cited the concern based on the large percentage of workers eligible for the benefit, which theoretically is the 25 percent of the workforce who don't qualify for overtime.
Additionally, jurors said the leave policy was inconsistently applied across various labor groups.
The civilian panel made several recommendations, asking for a regular audit of job categories and a study of the financial impact of having a large number of employees exempt from overtime.
The recommendations stand in sharp contrast with the usual concerns about overtime pay. Fiscal watchdogs and government officials typically like to limit overtime because of the resulting payroll and pension costs.
Assistant Executive Officer Shawn Atin took serious issue with the grand jury report, objecting that jurors did not provide any examples of workers abusing leave or data to support the overtime claim.
Under federal labor law, employees may be exempted from overtime if they are executives, administrative employees, learned or creative professionals, or work in certain computer technology positions.
In the county workforce, they include managers, physicians, attorneys and analysts, Atin said.
"The determination is based on what you do for a living," he said.
He also defended the county's use of administrative leave. Under the policy, department heads may grant up to three days of paid leave and sometimes more to salaried employees who can't draw overtime.
The benefit goes to employees who have worked long beyond the normal workweek for purposes such as meeting budget deadlines and responding to disasters, Atin said.
He said .29 percent of all hours paid to exempt employees were taken as administrative leave over a 12-month period.
Jurors said they investigated the issues based on a complaint alleging abuse of administrative leave and improper classification of certain employees as exempt from overtime pay. No other details about the complaint were provided.
Jurors are seeking a response from the Ventura County Board of Supervisors, which oversees the county government.
June 6, 2016
Ventura County Star
By Kathleen Wilson
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