CLARKSBURG – A former Clarksburg city employee says he never was paid for unused comp time and other leave.
Timothy Secreto filed his complaint March 8 in Harrison Circuit Court against the City of Clarksburg.
“A paycheck is nearly sacred,” attorney Teresa Toriseva told The West Virginia Record. “The laws protecting when and how wages must be paid are clear and strict. Mr. Secreto deserves to be paid the wages and benefits he has already earned.”
Toriseva
According to the complaint, Secreto worked for the city’s Public Works Department from 1995 to October 2022. In 2011, he was promoted to foreman. He was paid an hourly wage, receiving periodic raises, and received compensation time in lieu of receiving overtime wages.
Secreto says he routinely worked more than 40 hours per week and was given comp time instead of overtime wages.
In 2015, a new department superintendent required employees to use all accumulated vacation time before using any accrued comp time.
Secreto says he was forced to come into work for work-related purposes an hour early before every shift, but he says he wasn’t paid for that hour. He says the city denied several of his requests to use his leave time, including comp time, because of poor scheduling and understaffing issues.
He also says the city didn’t allow him to roll his accumulated comp time over from one year to the next, and he says the city never paid him for his unused comp time when it reduced the number of hours he had accrued.
Secreto was on sick leave from December 2020 to October 2022, which is when he retired. His final pay rate was $36 per hour. He says the city paid other retirees their respective accumulated comp time, but he says it did not pay him for any unused accumulated comp time or other leave, such as vacation time.
According to the complaint, Secreto accumulated 366.25 hours in 2015 that were reduced without payment, 130 such hours in 2016, 108 such hours in 2017, 77.5 such hours in 2018, 64.5 such hours in 2019 and 4.5 such hours in 2020. He says the city also allowed him to accumulated more than 240 hours of comp time through the years for which he wasn’t paid.
Secreto accuses the city of failure to pay comp time in violation of the state Minimum Wage and Maximum Hour for Employees Law, negligent failure to pay wages according to that same law, negligent failure to pay wages in violation of the state Wage Payment Collection Act and breach of contract.
He seeks compensatory damages plus penalties, interests, court costs, attorney fees and other relief.
Secreto is being represented by Toriseva, Joshua Miller and Michael Kuhn of Toriseva Law in Wheeling. The case has been assigned to Circuit Judge Thomas A. Bedell.
Harrison Circuit Court case number 23-C-46