TULSA, Okla. — The PGA Championship brought thousands of people to Southern Hills Country Club in May, partnering with companies to hire needed staff.
Some staff members hired through MVP Event Staffing say they still haven’t been paid more than a month later.
“I have made probably hundreds of phone calls at this point just trying to get answers to let everyone know there’s a problem,” said Phoenix Youngblood an MVP Event Staffing employee for the PGA Championship.
Youngblood was hired by MVP Event Staffing to work on the Saturday of the PGA Championship.
“I was in the media kitchen. All I did was wash dishes and just helped anywhere else that was needed like spills and stuff, just clean up," Youngblood said.
She says she worked 15 hours that one day. She was told she would receive a paycheck for the base pay rate, tip money, and a bonus for working one of the final days of the event. Now a month after the PGA Championship, a couple missed payday deadlines, and many phone calls with no answers, she says she hasn’t received a dime.
“We’ve had four different days saying that we were going to get paid on that day since the PGA. They’ve all passed by," she said. "They keep saying basically we’re not getting paid because their client isn’t paying them yet and that is Delaware North.”
With frustration, she took to social media and found at least 33 other people all dealing with the same issue with the same company. Now they are working with attorney Steven Hickman to consider legal action after getting no answers from MVP Event Staffing and their client company Delaware North.
“All these folders are for the attorney and they include all of our emails, any contact we’ve had with MVP," Youngblood said. "A lot of us don’t even have anything on paper saying what we were supposed to be getting. We had to pull that from their website.”
She says she believes others may be impacted and wants to present a unified front to make sure they get what they say is owed to them. A staff member at Southern Hills has also been trying to help Youngblood get answers.
Some people finally got paid on June 17, but others only received a portion of what’s owed to them and some like Youngblood still haven’t gotten paid as of Monday.
The attorney who is representing the frustrated employees says he anticipates filing a lawsuit on Tuesday. We reached out to MVP Event Staffing and their client company Delaware North for comment but have not heard back from either.
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