Overtime compensation due to ASG employees is moral and legal duty, Gov. Lemanu tells directors

Pago Pago, AMERICAN SAMOA — In an Aug. 30 memorandum, Gov. Lemanu Peleti Mauga informed Executive Branch directors and heads of agencies that it is “a legal and moral duty to compensate employees for overtime they worked.”

The governor called on directors to manage their overtime within the limits that are set by their budgets. “However, if there is a problem paying overtime that a director cannot resolve, it is important that the director” contact the Governor’s Office for guidance and assistance, Lemanu explained.

Additionally, each director and agency head shall provide the Governor’s Office with documented amount of outstanding overtime and compensatory time that is due to its employees.

According to the governor’s directive, the amount of overtime shall be documented in dollars owed while amount of comp time owned shall be in hours of comp time owned. If the agency has no outstanding overtime or comp time that is due to employees, the agency will notify the Governor’s Office of that fact.

And the information — to be submitted the Governor’s Chief Legal Counsel, Jason Mitchell — is due by Sept. 7, 2022.