Deputies sue county, sheriff’s office, allege unfair labor practices

A group of Loudoun County deputies and Police Benevolent Association members filed a lawsuit Tuesday against Loudoun County, the sheriff’s office and Sheriff Stephen O. Simpson, alleging that deputies have been subjected to unfair labor practices that resulted in unpaid overtime and the forced flexing of their regularly scheduled hours to lower costs.

The lawsuit was filed in Loudoun County Circuit Court by the law firm Simms Showers on behalf of six named plaintiffs and “dozens of Loudoun County deputies,” the majority of whom are Adult Detention Center employees, according to the firm. The plaintiffs are seeking $600,000 in damages.

Loading...

Comments

• Weigh In
• Corrections?

Personal Post

“The law is clear, and the sheriff and the county have been short-changing their deputies for years,” attorney Caleb Kershner said.

The lawsuit contends that deputies are compensated based on a 40-hour workweek and should be paid overtime for additional hours worked. The complaint also alleges that if a deputy has to work extra hours in a workweek — to cover for another officer or to attend court sessions — the sheriff’s office has established a policy of “slashing” the deputy’s remaining regularly scheduled work hours to avoid paying overtime.

Simpson, who said Thursday that he had not been served and had not seen the lawsuit, questioned the timing of the complaint, which was filed one week before the county election. He added that he first learned of the lawsuit when a reporter called him for comment.

“They didn’t call me or the county; they called the media,” he said. “It stinks of politics. It’s dirty politics at its worst.”

Sean Dikeman, vice president of the Loudoun chapter of the PBA, denied the accusation.

“This is not politically motivated,” he said. “We tried to meet with the sheriff in January, and we never received a response from him.”

The PBA addressed the issue with county administrators in February and was left with the impression that the flex issue would be resolved, Dikeman said.

“In August, we still had not seen any communication from the sheriff’s office indicating that the policy needed to be retracted or removed,” he said. “There’s a serious disconnect in communication somewhere along the line.”

Attorneys representing the deputies ultimately issued a demand letter to the sheriff’s office and the county in August, prompting a meeting between PBA lawyers and the county attorney. But no action was taken, Dikeman said, and it wasn’t until mid-October that the PBA received authorization from its Georgia-based headquarters to file suit.

“Our perspective is that we brought the issue up in February, and the [county] said then it didn’t support it and we thought we’d see an end to it,” he said.

Simpson said the flex policy was put in place after the county hired an outside consultant to assess overtime expenditures, a move that he had opposed.

“I’m the one who said we shouldn’t be changing this,” he said. “Somebody works overtime, you get paid overtime, that’s the price of doing business. But [the county] cut my overtime dramatically, and that’s why we’re where we are.”