A solid waste employee collects garbage in Jacksonville. | News4Jax
Published on July 17, 2024 at 10:42 am
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A new Office of Inspector General report looked into allegations that Jacksonville Solid Waste Division drivers collected tens of thousands of dollars in possibly unjustified overtime.
The investigation began in October 2023 and looked at overtime hours submitted over the previous year.
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The investigation revealed that some drivers earned more than $50,000 in overtime with one earning more than $100,000 in extra pay.
The OIG conducted several interviews where two employees admitted to working on solid waste employees’ personal cars while at work.
They did say they did this during their breaks and denied claiming more overtime hours.
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The OIG said its review revealed a pattern of inconsistent and incomplete documentation of work hours.
Most of the solid waste truck driver reports reviewed during these timeframes were incomplete or illegible and rarely signed by a supervisor.
In the end, the OIG found it was impossible to verify the overtime hours worked.
An employment attorney told News4Jax you would normally see this in an office that is understaffed.
“You would have thought that this would have been something that would have been addressed by hiring more people or changing the structure or something along those lines,” said Tad Delegal, an attorney at Delegal, Poindexter, and Underkofler.
Delegal said he’s worked on cases with similar situations, but in this case, the employees likely won’t face criminal charges.
“Because the investigation revealed they could not substantiate any fraud. And instead, they said that this could have been legitimate. They could have legitimately worked these hours,” he said.
The OIG did have two recommendations for the Solid Waste Division moving forward.
First, identify positions likely to earn significant amounts of overtime and develop sufficient internal controls to confirm these employees are working the hours they claim. Also, require supervisors to verify hours worked by their employees and maintain accurate records.
News4JAX reached out to the Solid Waste Division superintendent for comment but did not receive a reply.
This story was produced by News4Jax, a Jacksonville Today news partner.
