Wednesday, April 29, 2015
YOUNGSTOWN
Forty-nine former long-term employees of the Mahoning-Youngstown Community Action Partnership have sued that agency, saying it still owes them paid time off they should have received upon their July 31, 2014, termination.
Depending on their length of service, MYCAP owes the 49 plaintiffs between about $200 and about $4,000 each, said Timothy J. Cunning of Boardman, a lawyer for the plaintiffs.
The plaintiffs joined MYCAP between 1974 and 2004.
Cunning and his law partner, Sean R. Scullin, filed the lawsuit Friday in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court, where the case is assigned to Judge Lou A. D’Apolito.
The lawsuit seeks compensatory damages of more than $25,000 and punitive damages to be determined in a jury trial.
The lead plaintiff is Douglas Richardson, who joined MYCAP in 1978 and left as Head Start preschool transportation manager. Richardson said he is entitled to more than $4,000 in paid time off (PTO).
He now has the same job title and function with the Community Development Institute of Denver, which became interim Mahoning County Head Start operator Aug. 1, the day after MYCAP lost the Head Start program.
The number of paid time-off hours to which employees were entitled based on their length of service was spelled out in the MYCAP employee handbook, which was their employment contract, Cunning said.
Therefore, MYCAP’s failure to pay it was a breach of contract, he said.
In May 2014, every MYCAP employee was required to sign a form acknowledging he or she had received a new edition of the employee handbook, which specified the PTO amounts they’d receive, Richardson said.
“We want to get paid,” Richardson said. “It’s not fair” that the specified amounts haven’t been paid, he added.
“This is something they earned just like a paycheck,” Cunning said.
Saying she hadn’t seen the lawsuit, Sheila Triplett, MYCAP executive director, declined to comment.
The plaintiffs’ employment with MYCAP ended the day the agency lost the federal food-service grant it used to feed Head Start participants.
The loss of the Head Start program forced the anti-poverty agency to reduce its staff from about 155 to 22 during the third quarter of last year.
Most of the employees MYCAP terminated were associated with Head Start and were hired by the Denver organization, which took over Head Start on Aug. 1, Triplett said last fall.
Remaining MYCAP programs include the Home Energy Assistance Program, the Home Weatherization Assistance Program, Percentage of Income Payment Plan Plus and the Summer and Winter Crisis Programs.