BERKELEY COUNTY, W.Va. –The state Supreme Court has ruled claims made by a group of Berkeley County school nurses can proceed.
In July 28 order, the court ruled in favor of 29 nurses who had sued the Berkeley County Board of Education, where they alleged that they were not properly being compensated for their work, among other things.
The nurse’s attorney Teresa Toriseva says while they love their job, it has come down to not being paid what they should be getting paid.
“The nurses all, every one of them, love what they do, it really is just an issue of pay and the only way working people can tend to dispute not being paid right, you owe me money, this policy isn’t consistent with law, is to go to court,” Toriseva said.
She says that the reason it made it to court was because of the board of education.
“So, procedurally this extraordinary action was taken by the school board to go directly to the supreme court to get and attempt to get the court to stop the case from proceeding below after a circuit court judge said it should proceed, and the supreme court said no, no, no and sent the case back to the circuit court,” Toriseva said.
Berkeley County Circuit Court Judge Debra McLaughlin was the one said that the case could go forward, however the board of education petitioned for it to go to the Supreme Court.
She noted that legal action was not the first avenue the nurses took in the matter.
“The law, which is the right thing, requires you in good faith to try and work these things out with the school board in this case or if it were a city or any other employer and we did that, the nurses did that and we’re met with the same kind of resistance frankly they were met with when they filed in court,” she said.
She said that there is a list of grievances surrounding the case, that the nurses are looking to change.
“Overtime is the number one abused wage problem for employees in American, nurses also for example don’t really get lunch, there on duty during lunch, they don’t get an admin period for planning, most people that a school nurse, that everybody is their patient,” Toriseva said.
According to the criminal complaint, the nurses are non-exempt salaried employees that are scheduled to work 7.5 hours per day, which included seven hours of work and a 30-minute unpaid lunch.
She said there are two outcomes that could happen when it comes to settling the case.
“You know in litigation, you fight until you either get to go before the judge and the jury and they resolve it for you, or the parties come together and work it out and resolve it for everybody’s benefit, “Toriseva said. “We always prefer that method and it’s always better for both parties, but again it takes both parties willing to negotiate in good faith, we just haven’ been there yet, maybe we will be now, or maybe there will be more aggressive litigation and we’ll proceed.”
She said currently the nurses are seeking injunctive relief, compensatory damages, statutory interest, liquidated damages, court costs, attorney fees, and other relief.
Toriseva said the nurses are just happy they get to be heard.
“The nurses are really really pleased to get there day in court, which really is just this opportunity to have these things fixed that have affected their pay for so long,” she said.