In December, the city council voted to give laid-off city workers their 80 hours of vacation pay – to date, those checks have still not been issued.

“We want to make sure we’re in compliance and not breaking any labor laws,” said Selma City Council President Corey Bowie.

However, according to Christina Coleman-Lovelace of the U.S. Department of Labor, issues surrounding benefits payments to laid-off employees does not fall under the labor department’s jurisdiction.

A petition submitted by a handful of the 68 laid-off employees to the council before Tuesday’s meeting requests that the money be paid.

“We are not asking for any favors, we are requesting to be treated fairly,” the laid-off workers stated in their petition.

The document also references the fact that at least one laid-off employee has received a paycheck – last Friday, a laid-off city worker received a paycheck in the amount of $2,931.83 for “difference in pay rate,” meaning that the former employee was being paid money owed after accepting a supposedly higher paying job.

However, the check stub does not specify the dates for which the employee is being paid.

According to Bowie, laid-off city workers may not be eligible to receive vacation pay. Bowie stated that he was told by the city’s Human Resources Department that the city is not required to pay laid-off workers for vacation time because they may be recalled to their job.

The city’s personnel handbook does not define whether a laid-off employee is eligible to be paid for accrued vacation times, but states that “employees who have left in good standing” will receive payment for up to 80 hours of vacation pay.

It is unclear, however, if a municipality is allowed to compensate workers for those benefits in light of a mandate from the city council – attorneys with the Alabama League of Municipalities were not available for comment and Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) did not respond to multiple requests for clarification.

“I earned this vacation pay and more by coming to work every day,” said Cindy Stoudenmire, a city employee of 14 years. “It is mine and is owed to me. When I went on unemployment, I did not receive what I would have earned by working every day and have had to dip into savings to pay my bills so this would allow me to replace some of what I have had to use.”

Most of Stoudenmire’s tenure was in the Ceramic Art Department, on top of giving tours at the Vaughan-Smitherman Museum and booking events for the building.

For the last year, Stoudemire worked in the City Clerk’s office, dealing with the public, entering purchase orders and filing city records, for minimum wage.

Several former employees contacted The Selma Times-Journal about their ongoing predicament but declined to have their statements printed for fear of retaliation.

Many of these employees claimed that the city did not follow the procedures for lay-offs outlined in the personnel handbook, which states that seniority is supposed to be respected in relation to lay-offs.

According to the handbook, if a departmental lay-off takes place “provisional, temporary, seasonal, part-time and probationary” employees should be laid-off first. If a lay-off is city-wide, “seniority shall govern” except in cases where there are multiple employees with equal seniority.

The handbook also states that an employee laid-off from a department with classifications or grades lower than the one they previously held “shall have the option of working in any other lower classification or grade in the same department.”

Carneetie Ellison, who worked for the city for 15 years and worked in the city’s Recreation Department for the last 13 years, was another employee laid-off in November.

Ellison stated that an employee currently in the department, Gerald Barron, was hired in March of 2016 – at that time, Ellison was the administrative assistant for the department.

“They can’t say there was no need for administration because there’s always bills that need to be paid,” Ellison said. “Mine was more of a personal vendetta.”

Ellison has repeatedly claimed that she was allegedly targeted by the city’s current Personnel Director, Sean VanDiver, whom she currently has four pending EEOC complaints against.

“I built my career here,” Ellison said. “I planned on retiring here.”

“Make no mistake, I blame the mayor,” Stoudenmire said. “The council seems to have its hands tied with governmental procedure and are paying the price as much as us.”

Bowie said the issue will be taken up at an upcoming Administrative Committee meeting, where he hopes to establish “synergy” between the city’s Personnel Department and the council.

“It’s so important that the legislative and executive branches work together,” Bowie said, noting that representatives from the Personnel and Human Resources departments will be on hand for the committee meeting.

For Stoudenmire, a solution can’t come fast enough – she is currently living without health insurance and has had to put off replacing the tires on her car and can only afford the “bare necessities” during trips to the grocery store.

“My biggest problem is coming to terms with the fact that I lost my job through no fault of my own, just the whim of a man using the situation to get more money without proving the exact financial situation of the city,” Stoudenmire said.

“We need to start looking at a re-entry plan to bring back our employees,” Bowie said. “I am in complete support of our employees.”

Attempts to reach City Hall were unsuccessful.