Cook County commissioners Tuesday unanimously approved a new policy that caps workers’ overtime, although some commissioners questioned why the Stroger administration failed to act sooner to control runaway costs paid to employees.
The policy prohibits employees from working more than 20 hours of overtime each week and places a cap of 624 hours per year–except in cases of emergencies.
Under the new terms, last year’s overtime leader, Oak Forest Hospital nurse Usha Patel, would have had her overtime cut by more than three-fourths.
Patel earned $187,500 in overtime, on top of her annual salary of $97,200, by working 2,746 hours of overtime last year.
Patel told the Tribune earlier this week that a nursing shortage has forced her and many of her colleagues to work extra duty. Patel said the decision to put in for overtime should be left to individual nurses, a position supported by her union, the Illinois Nurses Association.
The new policy, in the form of a resolution proposed by County Board President John Stroger, followed a Tribune report last week about the county’s high overtime expenses, which included more than 100 employees last year who made in excess of $50,000.
The resolution was an attempt by Stroger to show county managers and taxpayers that he is serious about getting control of overtime expenditures, which grew from
$32 million in 1996 to $76.7 million last year.
Some commissioners, however, questioned why Stroger hadn’t taken action sooner rather than seek a largely symbolic resolution from the board.
“The truth of the matter is, you can make a phone call to stop this,” Commissioner Forrest Claypool (D-Chicago) said.
