O’Fallon fired paramedic for demanding unpaid overtime, lawsuit alleges
A former O’Fallon paramedic is alleging in a federal lawsuit that the city did not pay him for the overtime he worked and fired him for raising concerns about it.
Timothy McClain filed the complaint in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Illinois on Dec. 31. The city has not yet responded to the lawsuit in court.
O’Fallon Mayor Eric Van Hook could not immediately be reached for comment.
McClain accused the city of misclassifying him as exempt from overtime pay. His title was paramedic supervisor, but he states in the lawsuit that his responsibilities were the same as hourly, union-represented paramedics, who received time-and-a-half pay when they worked more than 40 hours a week.
Those responsibilities included responding to 911 calls, providing emergency medical care and transporting patients to hospitals.
McClain alleges he routinely worked 18 hours of overtime per week and was never paid for it. He received a fixed yearly salary of about $99,000, according to the complaint.
“The unpaid overtime premium due to him was approximately $295.38 per week, totaling an estimated $46,086.70 over three years,” the lawsuit states.
The city cited a “mistaken” work report as the reason for McClain’s 2023 termination, the lawsuit states. McClain denied any wrongdoing in the complaint and alleged that his firing was instead retaliation for questioning the city about overtime.
This story was originally published January 8, 2026 at 5:30 AM.
