EDWARDSVILLE — Current and former members of Air Methods medical flight crew have filed a lawsuit alleging they were not paid for overtime.
Darren Davis, Zachary Briggs, Kristopher Whitlock-Horecker and others filed a complaint Feb. 5 in the Madison County Circuit Court against Air Methods Corporation, alleging violation of the Illinois Minimum Wage Law, unjust enrichment and willful and wanton negligence.
According to the complaint, the plaintiffs are current and former employees of Air Methods as non-exempt workers in the air medical flight crew. They allege they were all required to work two-24 hours shifts each week and that they spent all 24 hours of their shifts "either responding to emergency calls" or at Air Methods' facilities standing ready to respond to emergency calls. The plaintiffs also allege they worked more than 40 hours per week and that Air Methods pays them at their regular rate for all the work within the 40 hour work week instead of paying the overtime compensation.
The plaintiffs further claim Air Methods' excuse of not paying overtime due to the company's factoring in "sleep time" is illegal under state law.
The plaintiffs seek monetary and all other just relief. They are represented by Mark Schuver, Deanna Litzenburg and Natalie Lorenz of Mathis, Marifian & Richter LTD in Belleville, Troy Walton of Walton Telken LLC in Edwardsville and Aaron Zigler of The Zigler Law Group LLC in Chicago.
Two similar lawsuits were also filed in Madison County Circuit Court by Schuver on behalf of flight medical personnel.
Madison County Circuit Court case number 21-L-000168