Richland County, SC (WLTX) - Imagine consistently working over 40 hours a week and not getting paid overtime for it. That's what one former employee said is going on at Richland School District One. And now, the Department of Labor is investigating.
"At this point I just think that if the district is in the hole, they really do need to stop digging," Machelle Thompson said.
Earlier this month, Thompson filed an $11 million lawsuit against Richland School District One. She said she was fired from her position as Classified Services Director after she told her supervisors that for years the district was breaking the law.
She said they failed to pay at least 40 employees hundreds of thousands of dollar in overtime wages.
"I had done all of the research. I had presented to the executive team, the executive committees and to the executive board, so I did all of the research. I knew what the law was. They decided to ignore it or they decided that my interpretation was wrong. Whatever they decided the Department of Labor is there," she said.
The United States Department of Labor confirmed there is an open investigation looking into wages and hours.
This isn't the first time Richland One has had problems. In 2006, the district was forced to pay $78,313.07 in back wages for 219 employees. The Department of Labor also said that two other cases followed. The district paid $59,909.59 in back wages for 23 employees at C.A. Johnson High School and $65,964.50 in back wages for 21 employees at Columbia High School.
"They go on vacation. They go on sick leave. They're getting docked for time that they don't have, but they are still at work because they are answering emails. They are answering text messages. They are answering phone calls. They are remoting into their computer to do work, while they're not there, but they are not getting compensated for that," Thompson said.
These aren't teachers.
"These are those people that they have put the title of manager on or supervisor on and said that because they have that title that they are exempt when actually they are not," she said.
We reached out to the district for an interview and in an emailed response they replied:
"Richland One was recently contacted by the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) seeking an audit of the District’s compliance with the Fair Labor Standards Act. The District responded that it was in the process of completing an internal compliance audit which was commenced with an outside contractor in 2016.Upon learning of the audit in progress, DOL did not initiate an audit but asked that we provide a copy of the work undertaken by the District's contractor upon completion. Of course, upon completion of the audit, any material subject to disclosure under the provisions of the S.C. Freedom of Information Act will be available to the public.The District is unaware of the DOL’s reason for making its inquiry at this time. Nevertheless, the District will fully cooperate with any inquiry of DOL or other governmental agencies. As to any pending litigation, the District does not comment on pending litigation."
"I don't think that the focus is on the children and that's where it needs to be," said Thompson.
This year Richland County Council allocated over $200 million to Richland One.