The Stanislaus County Office of Education is being sued by two of its employees whose attorneys allege SCOE failed to provide them with paid vacation and holidays in violation of the state Education Code.
The lawsuit also alleges that when SCOE started providing the employees with paid vacation and holidays last year, it did so by reducing their pay to cover the cost of the time off.
The two employees are occupational therapists Susan Lyneis and Regina Ceja. The lawsuit states they are categorized as classified employees under the state Education Code, work less then 12 months a year, are paid based on a 200-day work schedule and are not represented by a union.
The lawsuit alleges SCOE treated other classified employees who work less than 12 months and are not represented by a union — such as mental health clinicians and behaviorists — the same way and wants the court to certify the litigation as a class-action lawsuit on behalf of these employees.
“… SCOE did not actually start providing Plaintiffs (Lyneis and Ceja) and the other members of the Class with paid vacation and paid holidays,” according to the lawsuit. Instead, it reduced their “base pay rate such that these 20 additional ‘paid’ days resulted in” the classified employees “receiving the same pay they would have received had SCOE not provided them with paid vacation or holidays.”