Pursuant to the FLSA exception, which allows public employers to give their hourly workers compensatory time in lieu of overtime pay, a town provided its police officers with compensatory time credits in place of overtime premiums.

However, when police officers tried to “cash in” their compensatory entitlements, the chief of police—following the instructions of the town council—approved such requests only when a police officer’s absence on “comp time” did not require the town to pay a replacement officer overtime/comp time.

Should the town be permitted to restrict the police officers’ enjoyment of their comp time entitlements in this fashion? See Canney v. Town of Brookline [2000 WL 1612703 (D. Mass.)].