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Wilkinsburg settles K-9 care reimbursement suit
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Wilkinsburg Borough has agreed to settle, for $35,375, a claim filed by two police officers who sought payment for time spent caring for their K-9 colleagues.
Officers Doug R. Yuhouse and Mark Wilson sued the borough in June, claiming that they should be paid overtime wages for the off-duty time spent grooming, training, walking and cleaning up after the police dogs assigned to their care. They said that because they took the dogs home with them, they ended up working early and late to satisfy their needs and handle equipment and paperwork, and were due payment under the Fair Labor Standards Act.
The payment covers back wages, liquidated damages and attorney fees. In addition to the base amount, the officers are due back overtime wages for 3.5 hours of work per week, at time and a half, retroactive to Jan. 1, 2012. The borough doesn't have to pay those back wages for weeks during which the officers were on vacation and the borough covered kennel fees.
The settlement was approved by Wilkinsburg council this week and the settlement agreement was provided today in response to a right-to-know request from the Post-Gazette
First Published March 8, 2013 4:44 pm
