City Hall has spent more than $12 million since 2012 to settle lawsuits over its failure to pay required overtime to employees ranging from police officers to social workers, sheriff’s deputies and former mayoral bodyguards.

But a new federal lawsuit claims that at least one city department, the Finance Department, has failed to learn from those expensive lessons.

Two former department employees, Adrienne Webster and Tyrus Yerby, have filed a class action suit on behalf of themselves and other current and former department employees alleging that Finance Department employees “regularly work or worked more than 40 hours per workweek without receiving overtime compensation as required under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act.”

Along with instituting a policy to avoid paying overtime, the department also blocked Mr. Yerby and other Finance Department employees from posting their actual time worked in the RAPIDS time entry system and gaining overtime, the suit states.

Mr. Yerby’s supervisor “told him, and other similarly situated employees, that they could work longer than 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., but they would not be paid for it,” the suit states.

Attorneys Nichole B. Vanderslice and Craig J. Curwood filed the suit May 24 on behalf of Ms. Webster, Mr. Yerby and others who might be affected.

The new suit does not specify a damage amount, but instead seeks payment for all proven unpaid overtime, with the final amount to be tripled as the FLSA requires. The suit also asks that the city pay the plaintiffs’ attorneys fees and also agree to a declaration in the public court record that the city and its Finance Department violated the FLSA.

The city does not publicly comment on pending litigation, and the court record does not yet include any response from the city.

The lawsuit points the finger of blame at the current finance director, John B. Wack, a key member of Mayor Levar M. Stoney’s financial team, although he is not mentioned.

According to the suit, the department began imposing a general no-overtime policy in late 2016, or just months after Mr. Wack started as the new director on July 1, 2016, under former Mayor Dwight C. Jones.

Working extra hours has been routine for employees of a department that has been plagued by double-digit employee turnover, from top positions like the controller and revenue manager to lower-level jobs such as administrative project analysts, tax enforcement officers and customer service representatives.

According to data obtained by the Free Press, at least 21 employees, or around 19 percent of the department’s total complement of 110 employees, resigned, retired, were forced out or fired outright in 2018.

In the first six months of 2019, at least 13 employees have left voluntarily or involuntarily, or about 12 percent of the department’s staff.

Some or all of the vacant positions are to be replaced, but the city’s hiring process moves slowly, often requiring two to three months from advertisement to start for a new employee.