Five registered nurses at state-owned facilities have filed a class-action lawsuit against the state of Iowa challenging what they allege is the state’s failure to pay them proper overtime wages.
The lawsuit, filed in Polk County court at the end of June, states the nurses have not been paid time-and-a-half for overtime work in the past two years. The plaintiffs accuse the state of intentionally under-paying nurses for overtime work in violation of state and federal labor laws.
Susan Rowe, Christine Kleiber, Tammy Burden, Julie Schropp and Stacey Good are asking to be paid two years’ worth of overtime wages that they say they’re owed. They are also asking for a court order to prevent the state from doing this again in the future.
The five nurses work for facilities run by the Department of Corrections and the Department of Human Services. If a judge approves this as a class-action lawsuit, more registered nurses employed by the state could join in.
The lawsuit names Governor Kim Reynolds and new Department of Administrative Services Director Jim Kurtenbach.
The governor’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment Monday afternoon.
