A former aide to Virginia Del. Marie March, R-Floyd, has filed a civil lawsuit against her onetime boss, claiming March asked her to do private work in a taxpayer-funded job and raising the prospect of class-action litigation on overtime pay for hundreds of legislative staffers.
Tambra Lynn Blankenship, a Giles County resident who briefly worked for March over the summer, filed the suit last week in Richmond City Circuit Court.
She’s seeking a judgment of at least $70,000 and court approval to initiate a class action that could involve 500 to 1,000 legislative aides whom Blankenship’s lawyers argue may have been improperly denied overtime pay by the General Assembly.
“State law requires that [legislative aides] be provided compensation for every hour worked,” the complaint says.
A woman who answered the phone at March’s district office Thursday said the delegate had decided not to comment.
Ironically, the case targeting General Assembly labor practices appears to center around an overtime bill the General Assembly passed in 2021. The bill was rolled back this year, and the suit only applies to legislative staffers who worked more than 40 hours in that yearlong window.
A state human resources document describing the impact of the 2021 law, an attempt to better align the state with a federal law requiring employers to pay some workers time and a half if they exceed 40 hours, said it allowed state...
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