Fulton County will pay a whopping $18 million to settle lawsuits brought by hundreds of county employees who say they were shortchanged on pay.
The payments will settle eight pending lawsuits that claim Fulton violated its own civil service rules, which require equal pay for employees in the same job classification. The money will go to 343 attorneys, judicial law clerks, public defenders, assistant district attorneys, State Court solicitors, child advocates and employees.
The employees claimed they were paid significantly less than their peers in the County Attorney’s Office, which, among other things, represents the Board of Commissioners and handles civil litigation against the county.
According to attorney Lee Parks, who represented the employees, the problem began in 1997, when the commissioners gave attorneys in the County Attorney’s Office a 36 percent raise. They failed to give raises to the other employees, who claimed they performed identical or similar work.
Parks said problems of unequal pay also affected employees in the Sheriff’s Departments.
It’s not the first time Fulton County has paid big money to settle claims of unequal pay. In 2003 it paid $400,000 to cover an arbitration award for IT employees, and last year it paid $4.6 million after judicial law clerks won a similar lawsuit.
A jury trial in one of the current lawsuits – brought by 88 public defenders – was set to begin Dec. 14. Parks said the parties reached a settlement of all the cases in a two-day mediation, followed by a month of almost daily negotiations.
In addition to the $18 million in back pay and attorneys’ fees, the county has agreed to pay $500,000 in annual raises for current employees who were denied the pay raises and increase the pensions of 40 plaintiffs who had retired. Parks estimated the total value of the payout at $21 million.
“They approval of this global settlement marks a new day in Fulton County,” Parks said in a statement announcing the settlement Monday.
Parks said the litigation had dragged on for 12 years. He praised county officials for settling the cases.
“Resolution of these long-running cases will save county taxpayers millions of dollars, as damages were accruing at a rate in excess of $300,000 per month,” Parks said.
Fulton County officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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