WHEELING – Ohio County employees have filed three lawsuits alleging improper wage and payment issues.
The complaints, all filed December 5, allege three different payment issues. The Ohio County Commission is named as the defendant in all three lawsuits.
“Public safety is threatened when the wages of those who protect us are withheld,” attorney Teresa Toriseva, who is representing the plaintiffs in all three complaints, told The West Virginia Record. “Ohio County Deputy Sheriffs are integral to the safety of our community and so are their paychecks.”
Toriseva
In one, 29 sheriff’s deputies say they have been denied at least one week’s pay by the county switching the payroll to being paid ahead by two days to being paid entirely in arrears. In the second, 31 employees claim they should have been paid the same as other county employees during the COVID-19 pandemic who received full pay but worked half of the hours. In the third, 16 plaintiffs allege they were forced to use their own earned paid sick time to comply with the county COVID policy of quarantining or otherwise not coming into work when the reason they couldn’t come into work was caused by a work event.
In the first complaint, the deputies say that by changing how the Ohio County Commission pays the plaintiffs to one week in arrears, it conflicts with the county handbook and has caused issues related to pay and benefits of county employees.
“The defendant undertook a plan to pay the plaintiffs different amounts in their paychecks until the change in employee pay could be completed,” the complaint states. “This has caused payroll discrepancies and has resulted in the plaintiffs being paid inaccurately or incorrectly.”
As an example, the complaint says one employee paycheck was for one week of pay, but it had two weeks of deductions taken out of it.
“Nothing on the paystub documented or memorialized that the plaintiffs were owed the missing one week of pay,” the complaint states. “Additionally, no clear guidance has been provided as to when the one week of pay owed to the Plaintiffs will be paid. This violates the West Virginia Wage Payment and Collection Act.”
The plaintiffs say one week of pay for each of them remains unpaid, which also violates state code. They also say this change resulted in the amount of their retirement contributions being adversely affected.
“All employees are aware of the amount taken per bi-weekly pay,” the complaint states. “The new manner and method causes the plaintiffs paychecks to contribute a much smaller amount to the retirement plan. This reduction in the amount of fringe benefits such as this also violates the WPCA.”
The deputies seek judgment and compensatory damages, interest, attorney fees, court costs and other relief.
In the second complaint, the plaintiffs note how then-Ohio County Administrator Greg Stewart notified county employees at the start of the COVID pandemic in March 2020 about using rotating shifts to allow employees to keep their distance among everyone and to keep hours worked as equal as possible, but he also said all full-time county employees would be paid their normal pay. Many of them are sheriff’s deputies.
Stewart later reiterated the use of rotating shifts and for supervisors to “please work the staff for half the hours and of course the other half of the staff for the other half of the hours.”
“Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, the Ohio County Sheriff Deputies continued to fulfill their obligations to the county and their community working full-time on the job with no additional compensation, except for a $1,000 ‘hero pay’ one-time bonus at the end of April, 2020,” the complaint states. “Unlike other categories of county employees, the plaintiffs were required to continue to work their regular shifts and work at least the same number of hours during the pandemic and they did prior to the pandemic.
“Otherwise, the safety needs of the county residents would not be met. The plaintiffs, unlike other county employees, did not have their pre-COVID pandemic base pay rate increased as promised by the defendant.”
That, according to the complaint, means the county violated its own wage policies and failed to pay the plaintiffs in accordance with the COVID pay rate policy.
“The defendant changed its pay policy during the COVID pandemic, the complaint states. “It agreed to pay county employees during the COVID pandemic at a rate of double time their pre-COVID base rate.
“The defendant paid other county employees the COVID pay rate but did not pay the plaintiffs the COVID pay rate.”
The plaintiffs have requested the missing wages, but the county has refused to pay. They also seek judgement, compensatory damages, interest, attorney fees, court costs and other relief.
In the third complaint, the employees who became sick with COVID through the course of their work say they were required to work to meet the public needs of the county. Many of them are sheriff’s deputies.
“When the plaintiffs were sick from COVID due to work related activities, the deputies were forced to quarantine from work and they were forced by their employer, the defendant County Commission, to use their earned personal sick leave for the time missed from work,” the complaint states. “The county further implemented a policy requiring employees to quarantine when they traveled outside a one-hundred-mile radius from Wheeling, West Virginia.”
When the plaintiffs quarantined, they say they were required to use their earned personal sick leave. But the county Employee Handbook states, “Sick leave is provided only for, and is intended to be used for, short term absences from scheduled work due to personal illness or injury which is not a result of or related to work activities.”
They say the county failed to pay wages as required by state code and failed to apply its own policy regarding the use of sick leave.
“The plaintiffs were required to use their personal earned sick leave for COVID sickness from work related activities in direct violation of Section 18 of the Ohio County Employee Handbook,” the complaint states. “The plaintiffs were required to use their personal earned sick leave in order to remain off work following coming into contact with COVID, regardless of whether the plaintiffs were sick, in direct violation of Section 18 of the Ohio County Employee Handbook. … As a result of this requirement, the plaintiffs were denied payment of wages and/or fringe benefits.”
In April, several members of the Ohio County Sheriff’s Office filed grievances with the Ohio County Commission about the matter.
These plaintiffs also have requested the missing wages, but the county has refused to pay. They also seek judgement, compensatory damages, interest, attorney fees, court costs and other relief.
The cases currently are assigned to three different circuit judges.
Ohio Circuit Court case numbers 22-C-210 (weekly pay), 22-C-211 (COVID pay) and 22-C-212 (sick leave)