OTTAWA — After a nearly four-year court battle, a judge said the Putnam County Educational Service Center must pay a former employee $16,701 for unpaid vacation days.
Judge John S. Collier of Putnam County Court of Common Pleas Court
Putnam County Administrator Jackson Betscher filed the complaint against his former employer, the Educational Service Center, in 2014 alleging he did not receive compensation for more than 48 vacation days between 2011 and 2013.
According to the judgment from Judge John S. Collier of Putnam County Court of Common Pleas Court, Betscher’s contract with the Educational Service Center was as a nonteaching employee and in 2013 all contracts with those employees were canceled.
According to the judgment from Collier, Betscher had been a full-time, nonteaching employee for the Education Service Center since starting the job on April 14, 1998. In 2011, the Educational Service Center’s governing board subcontracted him out to the Putnam County commissioners to “provide administrative services.”
Betscher’s attorney, Albin Bauer, said at this point the ESC claimed Betscher became a part-time employee for both offices and was no longer a full-time employee of the ESC and therefore not entitled to vacation time. He said this was not reflected in the ESC’s paperwork.
Betscher was always employed full-time by the Educational Service Center but was contracted out, like a temporary employee, to the Commissioner’s Office, Bauer said. Therefore Betscher was entitled to vacation benefits.
He was receiving health and retirement benefits at the time, Bauer said.
Bauer said it would have been nice if this could have been settled a long time ago instead of dragging it out in court.
“This wasn’t about monetary value, it was about the principal,” Bauer said. “This was a clear victory for Jack and he couldn’t be happier about the judgment.”
