The Hour: Norwwalk school district employees file timetheft lawsuit

Two employees of the Norwalk (CT) School District have filed a lawsuit against the district that claims hourly employees have had their time cards intentionally altered to strip them of time worked, The Hour reports.

District employees represented by the Norwalk Federation of Educational Personnel such as library media assistants, secretaries, and paraprofessionals are paid hourly and must turn in time cards to reflect time work.

The lawsuit alleges that each school employs an administrative secretary who oversees time cards. These secretaries allegedly have been instructed to alter time cards to ensure that full time employees rarely exceed 37.5 hours a week and part time employees never have more than 29.

The complainants claim that the time cards have been altered to avoid paying employees benefits and overtime. The lawsuit further alleges that 10-15 time cards are altered each week in a scheme that has been going on for at least two years and possibly as long as eight.

If the allegations are proven to be true, such actions taken by the school district represent a massive amount of systemic wage theft that has routinely denied employees their duly earned pay.