Nine former employees of the Birmingham, Alabama, Water Works Board have filed a lawsuit against their employer for wrongful termination following an overtime scandal, according to WBRC-TV. The suit alleges workers were receiving premium pay rates after timesheets were doctored by their supervisor to include time and attendance they never earned.

According to the employees, their superior was voluntarily adding hours to their work totals, so they earned hundreds of extra dollars on every paycheck. In exchange for this compensation boost, the supervisor would sometimes ask for a kickback - between $200 and $250 of the total $400 they received, one of the former workers told the media outlet. Some of the employees feared the scheme would be discovered and asked to be excluded from the practice so they wouldn't lose their jobs. In response, the superior allegedly threatened to fire any employees who refused to take part in the extortion.

The employees were fired in August and an investigation is now being conducted to determine the validity of the claims.

Employers can protect themselves from similar accusations and investigations by installing a payroll processing system that calculates wages electronically. That way, employees cannot go back into the records to alter total hours worked. 

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