SPRINGFIELD — The Wilbraham-Hampden Regional School District is facing a class action lawsuit leveled by up to 200 employees whose attorneys argue the district violated the state’s wage-an-hour laws and shorted workers on pay.
The lawsuit, filed earlier this month in Hampden County Superior Court, says the district arbitrarily lengthened a two-week pay period to three weeks over the spring and, thus, made employees lose out on at least a week’s worth of pay.
While that figure may not be an enormous one per employee, Springfield attorney Jeffrey Morneau said the practice is an indisputable violation of state law and will trigger treble damages and attorney’s fees — a bill the taxpayers will have to foot if the plaintiffs prevail.
The lead plaintiff in the lawsuit is Kevin Landers, but other, similarly situated employees may join if the lawsuit is certified as a class action.
Moreover, Morneau said it is an impasse the district could have avoided. He said the lawsuit came after a brewing dispute that cropped up in May.
“We knew this was coming and we told the school district you cannot do this — this is a clear violation of the law. And they ignored us,” Morneau said. “At this point, there is no ‘Oops, we made a mistake.’ There is no good-faith belief. This is hundreds of thousands of dollars in liability.”
Morneau said he and other attorneys had been communicating with Aaron Osborne, assistant superintendent for finance, operations and human resources, and could not...
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