COVINGTON — More than 150 Kenton County Detention Center employees who were ordered to report to work 10 minutes before shifts started but not paid for that time are receiving $102,107 in back pay.

        After months of negotiations, Kenton County and Kentucky Labor Cabinet officials recently reached agreement on the wages.

        The payout is less than the $145,872 that state labor officials had initially sought; and through negotiations, state officials reduced the number of past and present jail employees eligible for the overtime from 165 to 156.

        But Jailer Terry Carl, who had maintained that the employees were entitled to the unpaid overtime accrued during the administration of former Jailer Don Younger, says he's “just tickled to death” that the employees finally received long-overdue compensation. He said individual compensation ranged from about $8 to $2,600.

        Monday, jail management began handing out checks to employees, and state officials have mailed checks to former workers.

        “It came at a good time,” said Mabel Bailey, 53, a deputy and corporal who helps run the jail. “My husband and I bought a big TV for Christmas six months same as cash. Now, instead of having a bill coming in, it's ours.”

        Of the original $2,300 the state had said Mrs. Bailey was owed, she received a settlement of $1,700. Her husband, Arthur, 60, who retired on medical disability last May, will receive about $1,300 of the nearly $3,500 state officials originally said he was owed.

        “I don't understand how they figured it, but at least we got a settlement,” Mrs. Bailey said. “That's more than we thought we were going to get.”

        Kenton County Treasurer Ivan Frye said state labor officials agreed with the county's assertion that errors had been made in the state's original calculations of back overtime owed. He said the state had checked time cards on a sampling basis, rather than check every time card to determine who had clocked in early.

        The county originally offered to pay 70 percent of the disputed overtime, a figure that rose to 77 percent when the state determined that some employees weren't eligible, Mr. Frye said.

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