COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) - A woman fired by a South Carolina school district has sued her former employer, accusing officials of conspiring to get rid of her after she repeatedly pointed out dozens of employees weren’t being paid properly in violation of federal law.
Machelle Thompson’s $11 million federal whistleblower lawsuit, filed this week, comes as officials with the U.S. Department of Labor confirmed to The Associated Press the agency was investigating Richland District One, which covers much of the Columbia area.
In her complaint, Thompson said the district intentionally misclassified more than 40 employees to avoid paying them money they were owed. Thompson said she was formally reprimanded, then fired from her job as director of classified employment services after repeatedly informing the district’s human resources director of the underpayment issue.
When she started her job in 2015 ensuring district employees were paid properly according to federal requirements, Thompson “discovered many unusual and questionable practices,” according to her lawsuit. Noting that district officials “seemed resistant to change,” Thompson said she was formally reprimanded several times on “false and pretextual charges” not detailed in the lawsuit but continued to do her job.
It was Thompson’s job to help identify employees who might be eligible for retroactive overtime pay under changes in federal labor laws. But, without consulting her, human resources director Sanita Savage Cousar emailed 46 employees whom Thompson had identified as being in that category and told them they weren’t in fact eligible.
When Thompson emailed her boss to challenge that assertion - and to warn of a possible U.S. Department of Labor investigation if problems weren’t corrected - she was “immediately admonished” by the district’s attorney for sending such a written message, which could be subject to open records laws, according to the lawsuit.
A month later, after challenging the reprimands, Thompson said Superintendent Craig Witherspoon fired her. Her lawsuit seeks about $11 million in damages.
Responding to an email from the AP, a district spokeswoman acknowledged receiving the message but didn’t immediately comment on either the lawsuit or any investigation.
U.S. Department of Labor spokesman Mike D’Aquino officials confirmed Thursday that the agency’s Wage and Hour Division was investigating the situation but gave no other details. According to the Labor Department’s website, Wage and Hour enforces components of the Fair Labor Standards Act, including overtime payments.
Agency records show the district paid more than $78,000 in back wages in 2006 as a result of an investigation involving 219 employees.
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Kinnard can be reached at https://twitter.com/MegKinnardAP. Read more of her work at https://bigstory.ap.org/content/meg-kinnard/
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