Nunez v. Ind. Dep't of Child Servs., No. 15-2800 (7th Cir. 2016)
Annotate this CaseThe Indiana Department of Child Services oversees state child protection services, child support enforcement, and the Indiana foster care system. For nine years, Nuñez and Martinez worked as investigators in the DCS Gary office. In 2014, they sued for violations of the overtime provisions of the federal Fair Labor Standards Act, 29 U.S.C. 207(a), claiming that DCS required them to work during lunch and to remain on call after their shifts, despite being paid for only 40 hours per week. The district court dismissed based on Eleventh Amendment immunity, rejecting an argument that Indiana had given consent. The Seventh Circuit affirmed. States must explicitly waive sovereign immunity, not explicitly preserve it. Indiana did not do so.
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