Eight current and former 911 dispatchers are suing the City of Evanston claiming it failed to provide them legally mandated overtime pay.

The suit, filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Chicago, claims the city only paid the dispatchers straight time for working more than 40 hours a week, from 2004 through 2021, rather than time-and-a-half.

While that is 17 years, under the law, damages can only be collected for the past three years at most.

However, the law also allows those damages to be tripled, plus have a 5% premium tacked on for each month in which overtime was not paid.

The suit is structured so that other 9-1-1 dispatchers who are not currently named plaintiffs can opt in. There are currently eight other such “telecommunicators” on the city’s staff.

City payroll records indicate an experienced dispatcher can earn around $45 an hour.

While the suit doesn’t list a specific dollar claim, it appears that if all the dispatchers joined the suit, the city’s potential total liability could top $1.5 million.

The suit alleges “willful” violations of both the federal Fair Labor Standards Act and the Illinois Minimum Wage Law.

Specifically, the employees say that they worked regularly scheduled 12-hour shifts, with more than 40 hours one week, fewer than 40 the next week, and repeated that pattern for years.

The allegation is that during the long weeks, each person worked 57.5 hours, but was only paid straight time for the entire shift.

The law, they say, requires overtime...

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