Byrd v. Oregon State Police

Plaintiffs are sergeants with the Oregon State Police. They appeal a judgment that dismissed their complaint against the Oregon State Police (the state) for overtime pay that plaintiffs allege is due them under state law. They assign error to the dismissal of their complaint and to the trial courts denial of their motion to amend their complaint to add a claim under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). The court denied plaintiffs motion to amend their complaint because it concluded that the state had not waived its sovereign immunity against being sued under the FLSA, so there was no reason to allow plaintiffs to amend their complaint to add such a claim. We conclude that the court did not err in dismissing plaintiffs state-law claim but erred in concluding that the state has not waived its sovereign immunity against plaintiffs proposed FLSA claim. We therefore reverse the judgment and remand for the court to reconsider plaintiffs motion to amend their complaint.