(CAÑON CITY, Colo.) — A criminal investigator assigned to the Colorado State Penitentiary in Cañon City is suing the Department of Corrections (DOC) for pay practices and staffing decisions.
According to the lawsuit, criminal investigator William Hastings is accusing the DOC of violating the Fair Labor Standards Act by failing to properly compensate him and other investigators for on-call hours and overtime.
Hastings has been employed by the DOC since March of 2010 – first as a parole officer, and then as a criminal investigator since August of 2016. He is still currently employed by the DOC, and is seeking to prosecute the Fair Labor Standards Act as a collective action on behalf of everyone who has worked as a criminal investigator in the last three years.
Hastings’ job as a criminal investigator is to respond to incidents at the penitentiary, such as drug dealing, and investigate the incident. The lawsuit states that on many occasions, he was on-call for more hours than the typical 40-hour workweek, sometimes in excess of 90 hours in a six-day period.
While working on call, Hastings and other investigators must be available to respond within minutes to the penitentiary if needed. On-call hours are also not optional, as the penitentiary keeps a minimal staffing level and requires investigators to work on-call hours.
The lawsuit states that these requirements prohibit Hastings and other criminal investigators from using the on-call time for their own purposes. They are not free to engage in personal activities such as going to the movies, going out for dinner, and consuming alcohol.
The lawsuit also alleges that the DOC does not keep a proper record of on-call hours that its investigators work, and that the DOC is aware that it has a legal obligation to be paying overtime for those hours. The lawsuit states that the DOC has been sued “on multiple occasions” for not properly paying overtime.
FOX21 News reached out to the DOC for a response, but the department said it cannot comment on active litigation.
