Ruling cuts $42M award for state workers seeking back pay

The Indiana Court of Appeals issued a ruling today that will force a trial court to significantly reduce a $42.4 million award handed down last year to state employees who alleged they were owed back pay.

The long-delayed 1993 suit was filed by state employees who were required to work 40 hours a week while others received the same salary for working 37.5 hours a week. The inconsistent policy was abolished about two months after the case was filed.

Marion Superior Judge John Hanley awarded the $42.4 million judgment to as many as 12,000 or more past and present state employees who’d fought to recover back pay for unequal wages earned over two decades.

But the appeals court said the court must recalculate damages based on only an approximately two-month period between when the case was brought in July 1993 and the state abolished the split-class system that fall.

The state had argued employees were not eligible for back pay over a longer period because they had not complied with a statute requiring that they bring workplace grieveances within day days after they arise..