Ex-Grey Oaks Country Club worker wins OT pay settlement

EAST NAPLES — A former Grey Oaks Country Club worker who contended she was owed overtime and the club have agreed on a $35,000 settlement.

Grey Oaks Country Club Inc. and Gloria S. Sibo agreed she will collect $21,125 in wages, states the settlement finalized Monday in U.S. District Court in Fort Myers.

Other parts of the settlement: $10,000 in fees to her Naples attorney, Eric J. Vasquez, a $3,295 mediator's fee and $580 in costs.

Vasquez and Kelly Holbrook, a Tampa attorney representing Grey Oaks, were unavailable for comment Tuesday.

Sibo sued Grey Oaks in February, contending she was owed unpaid overtime under the Fair Labor Standards Act.

She said her salary was $62,000 and she worked as a merchandise coordinator. Her duties included buying golf shop inventory; purchasing and setting up tournament gifts; checking, pricing and displaying merchandise; and providing customer service, court records state.

Sibo said she performed "clerical and sales activities" for Grey Oaks for three years, the suit states.

Grey Oaks countered that Sibo was employed in an administrative or executive position and therefore exempt from the Fair Labor Standards Act. The act established provisions for a national minimum wage and guaranteed time-and-a-half for overtime in certain jobs.

Sibo contended in the suit that she worked a minimum 18 to 25 hours of overtime every week in a 22-week period. Her hourly pay rate was $29.81, so her overtime pay would be $44.72 an hour, she said. Eighteen hours a week for 22 weeks equals $17,709 and 25 hours a week for 22 weeks is about $24,613 in unpaid wages, court records state.