GAFFNEY, S.C. (WIS) – A instructor in South Carolina added a class action lawsuit against the Cherokee County School District for what she claims is unpaid work and the exercise of stocking her school room using her own money, among different things.
Filed in court docket Wednesday, the lawsuit claims the Cherokee County School District is violating the national Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) and the Payment of Wages Act (PWA) of South Carolina, whilst additionally violating teacher contracts.
The lawsuit, filed by using Shannon Burgess, is open for different instructors inside the district, and around the state, to join the magnificence action. Burgess’ attorney, John Reckenbeil, stated, “They were seeking to positioned operational expenses at the backs of teachers,” he went on to say, “That’s what made me honestly dive in and look at this example as a bigger difficulty in preference to just an person case.”
Burgess makes a total of five claims, 4 of which might be open for other teachers to join:
She, and others, had been forced to work at after college wearing activities selling concessions to earnings the school with out being paid.
The district refused to pay her and her colleagues additional time for that work, which violates FLSA.
The district refused to pay her and her colleagues in any respect for that work, which violates PWA.
She, and others, are compelled to shop for faculty components and auction items, both of which advantage the college, with their own cash.
While on medical leave, she become required to work through imparting daily lesson plans for students, violating the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA).
The lawsuit names the Cherokee County School District, its board of trustees, its workplace of the superintendent, and Granard Middle School Principal Gavin Fisher as defendants.
AFTER SCHOOL WORK (See pages nine-13 of the lawsuit at the lowest of this tale.)
The lawsuit says Cherokee County instructors are compelled to personnel concession stands at after college wearing events without pay. Calling the work non-academic, the fit claims instructors need to be paid hourly for that point, cut loose their trainer salaries.
“Defendants require Teachers, for no extra repayment, to paintings extra hours outdoor the boundaries of the reasonable academic features at once related to instructional instructions or training, and out of doors the regular hours of classroom teaching,” the lawsuit claims.
The faculty district has a policy in place claiming instructors are exempt because they’re salaried personnel, according to the lawsuit.
Reckenbeil stated, “When you have got a settlement for a instructor to train – it must be inside the environment of an academic established order.”
CLASSROOM SUPPLIES AND OTHER PURCHASES (See pages 13-sixteen.)
The lawsuit seeks to exchange the practice of teachers shopping for vital materials for his or her school rooms with cash from their own wallet.
“It has lengthy been a sample of exercise in the course of this nation and the nation of South Carolina that school districts…Have unconscionably and impermissibly shifted running expenses of the classrooms immediately at the economic backs of our Teachers,” the lawsuit reads.
It claims there is a price range for supplies and substances, but teachers are required to shop for extra gadgets with cash from their salaries.
Also, the trainer claims her major required all teachers to buy a present basket for a faculty raffle reaping rewards the Parent Teacher Organization.
“Principal Fisher might constantly hound each teacher to get the Gift Basket grew to become in for the public sale” and stored a listing of folks that had now not but turned in a basket, the lawsuit claims.
For the ones in the class action claims, the lawsuit seeks unpaid wages for teachers, restitution for gadgets purchased by way of instructors to advantage the faculty, damages and attorneys’ charges.
Rekenbeil said, “I see this as honestly a primary step of giving the possibility for instructors to arise for themselves and say as a minimum pay us what you promised to pay us and don’t positioned operational expenses on our backs.”
WIS reached out to the Cherokee County School District’s Office of the Superintendent. They stated they’ve now not yet been served with the lawsuit and can not touch upon it presently.
