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PORTLAND, OR -- Employees at the Port of Portland police and parking control departments shared more than $55,000 in back pay for overtime they were not compensated for while working at Portland International Airport. Checks varied from $165 to more than $900 for the 58 members of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) Locals 1847 and 1847A.

The union filed a class-action grievance last February after discovering the Port was calculating employees' overtime wages using a formula that did not allow compensation for the first five minutes worked -- which was in violation of the union's contract as well as the Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industry's (BOLI) wage and hour law that "time worked is time paid," said Business Representative Sam Gillispie.

According to the union, the Port claimed the 20-year practice was inadvertent and in a settlement with AFSCME agreed to comply with wage and hour regulations and make retroactive payments for uncompensated overtime worked over the last two years. The two-year time frame was based on contractual limitations and BOLI restrictions, Gillispie said.

The Port's revised overtime procedure pays overtime in six-minute increments, always rounded up to the next six-minute interval, said Michael Brown, president of Local 1847.