The Federal Court for the Southern District of Texas, specifically the Corpus Christi Division, has formally granted conditional certification for a collective action lawsuit on behalf of the City of Corpus Christi’s wastewater workers. This pivotal legal ruling marks a major milestone for the municipal employees, who allege that the city has withheld years of legally required on-call compensation.
By granting conditional certification, the federal court has effectively acknowledged that there is a demonstrably similar group of workers who may have been subjected to the same unlawful pay practices. This decision opens the door for affected employees to be formally notified of the litigation and gives them the legal avenue to collectively step forward to claim back wages that they allege were wrongfully withheld.
Understanding the Collective Action and FLSA Allegations
The collective action complaint, officially filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas, levies serious allegations against the municipality. The lawsuit explicitly claims that the City of Corpus Christi directly violated federal law—specifically the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA)—by failing to adequately compensate its hourly wastewater department employees for the rigorous “on-call” hours they were mandated to fulfill.
Under the FLSA, specific guidelines dictate when employer-mandated on-call time must be treated as compensable hours worked. The lawsuit argues that the restrictions placed on these municipal workers during their on-call shifts were severe enough to heavily infringe upon their personal time, thereby triggering a federal requirement for hourly financial compensation that the city allegedly ignored for years.
Scope of the Lawsuit: Seeking Back Wages and Damages
The scope of this legal action is substantial, seeking both unpaid wages and liquidated damages for a vital sector of the city’s infrastructure workforce. Specifically, the lawsuit targets compensation for crew members and foremen within the wastewater department’s collections division. These individuals were routinely required to remain on call during after-hours periods, weekends, and holidays to respond to urgent city infrastructure failures.
Beyond the initial plaintiffs, the lawsuit is designed to encompass all similarly situated employees within the department. Because the court has granted conditional certification, any eligible current or former wastewater worker who underwent the same mandatory, unpaid on-call rotations during the liability period will have the opportunity to opt into the lawsuit, expanding the scale of the financial restitution sought from the city.
Legal Representation Calls for Just Compensation
The workers are being represented by a dedicated legal team from the Herrman & Herrman Law Firm, with attorneys Greg Herrman, Daniel Covich, and Josh Hopkins actively named on the pleadings. The legal team has framed the battle not just as a technical dispute over labor codes, but as a fundamental issue of worker dignity and community respect.
“Our clients are engaged in a maximum struggle for their minimum owed wages. These City workers are the backbone of what runs this City and protects its citizens. They ask for nothing more than a fair day’s pay for a hard day worked. It’s time to put these workers first,” stated Greg Herrman, managing partner of the firm. Herrman emphasized that these employees provide an essential, often thankless public service that keeps the city’s sanitation systems functioning safely, making the denial of their proper wages particularly egregious.
Systemic Violations of Federal Labor Laws and City Policy
Central to the plaintiffs’ argument is the claim that the city’s operational practices directly contradicted its own internal regulations. The lawsuit alleges that wastewater employees routinely and consistently worked well over the standard 40-hour workweek without receiving any form of on-call financial compensation.
Remarkably, the plaintiffs assert that this lack of payment was entirely contrary to the City of Corpus Christi’s own established, written employment policies. By failing to adhere to both its internal guidelines and the strict statutory provisions of the Federal Fair Labor Standards Act, the city allegedly created a systemic culture of unpaid overtime labor. The ongoing litigation aims to hold the municipal government accountable, force a thorough audit of the department’s historical payroll records, and ensure these critical infrastructure workers are finally paid in full.
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ABOUT HERRMAN & HERRMAN PERSONAL INJURY LAWYERS
With over 100 years of combined experience among the legal team of Herrman & Herrman, P.L.L.C., our Texas personal injury attorneys have successfully resolved over 20,000 cases. When representing injured Texas residents, we fight for justice against wrongdoing and aggressively pursue the best resolution to complex personal injury claims.
If you or a loved one was injured, please get in touch with us for a free initial consultation and case evaluation. Herrman & Herrman, P.L.L.C., is a locally based law firm that holds negligent individuals and companies accountable for their wrongdoing. We are not a personal injury mill that advertises nationwide. We provide individualized advocacy in attending to all aspects of claims that involve. Our firm has offices in the following locations: Corpus Christi, Corpus Christi South Side, Dallas, Brownsville, McAllen, San Antonio, Austin, Houston, and Ft. Worth, TX.
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