CHARLESTON – A Kanawha County man claims his employer misclassified him as a contractor to avoid paying him overtime and retaliated against him when he raised the issue.
Robert Justin Lowers filed a lawsuit March 15 in Kanawha Circuit Court against Valley Diagnostic Laboratories Inc., Kimberly Goldcamp and Shirley Golji, alleging violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act.
According to the complaint, Lowers was reclassified as an independent contractor without benefits upon returning to his job from an illness-related hiatus in 2011. After threatening to file an FLSA complaint because he was not paid for work performed after the end of the business day, the suit says he was reclassified as an employee, but was allegedly harassed to force his resignation. The plaintiff claims Goldcamp and Golji allowed a supervisor to tell his clients and co-workers he suffered from a contagious disease, causing some of them to don masks and take other evasive measures in his presence.
Lowers seeks recovery of unpaid overtime wages and related employee benefits, punitive damages for release of the information and reimbursement for litigation costs. He is represented by Charleston attorney Mark A. Toor.
Judge Louis H. “Duke” Bloom is assigned to the case.
Kanawha Circuit Court Case number 16-C-375