An Indiana trial court has awarded more than $42 million to current and former Indiana state employees who were required by the State of Indiana to work 40-hour workweeks from 1973 until 1993 even though other state employees holding the same positions were required by the State to work only 37.5-hour workweeks for exactly the same pay. Judge John Hanley of the Marion Superior Court issued findings of fact, conclusions of law and a judgment earlier this morning.

Suit was filed almost sixteen years ago, on July 29, 1993, when attorneys William A. Hasbrook and John F. Kautzman of Indianapolis-based Ruckelshaus, Kautzman, Blackwell, Bemis & Hasbrook filed the original class action complaint. The crux of the plaintiffs’ complaint has from the beginning been that the State was not legally permitted to force state employees in particular job classifications to work 2.5 hours more per week than other state employees in the same job classifications, while still paying them exactly the same pay as their lower-hour counterparts. Sixteen years and one four-day bench trial later, the Indiana court agreed and found in favor of the plaintiffs, awarding $42.4 million in damages for 20 years that the State continued making this unjust demand of certain of its employees.
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