A Boy Scout troop's project to raise money for summer camp has turned into a months-long dispute with a Garland store that parents say reneged on a commitment.
The dispute centers on payment for work that dozens of Scouts did over the three-day weekend after Thanksgiving at Bass Pro Shops in Garland.
Parent Susan King and Matthew Curtis, the troop's Scoutmaster, said they were led to believe that Scouts who worked the busy holiday weekend doing odd jobs at the store would be compensated as any other employee would be.
The troop expected to earn between $1,500 and $2,000 to put toward its summer camp. Instead the store offered the troop a $100 gift card. When parents complained, the store offered $300.
"It's just astounding to me that a company would do this to a group of young boys," said King, whose son Matthew, 14, is a member of Troop 67 in Mesquite.
Curtis acknowledges that the Scouts failed to obtain anything in writing from the store promotions manager.
An official at the Garland store declined to comment Tuesday. Larry Whiteley, a spokesman at Bass Pro's corporate headquarters, said officials were still looking into the situation.
"We'll comment once we hear both sides of the story," he said.
Some parents are also upset at Boy Scout officials at the regional level, saying they have not supported the troop and instead asked parents not to pursue the issue. Curtis said he was told by a Boy Scouts Circle 10 Council official Monday to drop the matter because of the support Bass Pro gives to the organization.
"This is very disappointing," parent Angela Marien said. "I put my son in Scouts because of the core values they teach. For Circle 10 to say, 'Put those aside just for money' is very disheartening."
Curtis said the Scouts had assumed they would be paid minimum wage, which is $6.55 an hour.
About 35 Scouts, along with several adults, worked various shifts starting at 5:30 a.m. the Friday after Thanksgiving until Sunday evening, for a total of 248 hours. Duties included sweeping floors, mopping, carrying boxes and busing tables, Curtis said.
"When we finished, they told us that in addition to the tips some of the boys got, which were about $75, that Bass Pro was going to give us another $100 in a gift card," Curtis said.
After Curtis and others objected, he said, Bass Pro offered to pay the Scouts $300. That amounts to less than $1.25 per hour.
Audrey Mross, a Dallas lawyer who specializes in labor and employment law, said employers are allowed to pay people younger than 17 less than minimum wage under certain circumstances, but they are required to pay at least $4.25 an hour.
The troop includes boys ages 11 to 16.
"Somebody needs to sit down and do those numbers, figure out exactly how many hours were worked by each boy and when," Mross said.
She also said that child labor laws also could come into play in certain situations when a child younger than 16 is allowed to work.
King said her son and the other Scouts were conscientious about the work they did.
"I know my son can be lazy around the house," she said. "I can't get him to even make his bed. But for these Boy Scout projects, he works his heart out. I got him up at 4:30 in the morning so he could be at the store before it opened.
"He was so proud of the work he did," King said.
A spokesman for the Boy Scouts of America, the national organization based in Irving, referred questions to the Circle 10 Council.
"We believe Bass Pro is going to wind up paying the troop for the work they did," said Wendy Kurten, the council's marketing director. "We're going to support our units, but we would like to work with both parties on resolving whatever issue they have."
Marien said that for many of the parents, "it's not even a money issue at this point."
She said she would be satisfied if Bass Pro would acknowledge that the promotions manager who made the offer did not have the authority to do that and apologize.
"But they haven't done that. They are just questioning our integrity and saying that that was never the agreement," Marien said.
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