The Schuylkill County Commissioners lifted the suspensions of two courthouse employees who were told not to return to work in September 2021 for using county software to look up information on people.

The two are also back to work, according to commissioners’ Chairman Larry Padora.

“The suspensions have been lifted and they are back to work,” Padora told the Times News Monday.

Padora did not disclose the names, and they weren’t mentioned during a commissioners work session last week.

But after a county resident asked about the county tax claim office during that meeting, Padora noted that, “The suspension is ended.”

Tax Claim Director Angela Toomey and Assistant Director Denise McGinley-Gerchak had been suspended without pay by the previous board for using LexisNexis software to find personal information on about 300 people.

The software accesses such data as Social Security numbers, driver’s license records, and legal and financial information.

On a split vote, the previous board of commissioners made the suspensions saying the improper searches were in violation of the county’s Network and Internet Access policy.

The Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry’s Unemployment Compensation Board later determined that the county could not prove the women engaged in “willful misconduct” and so were eligible for 26 weeks of unemployment compensation.

Toomey and McGinley-Gerchak are among four who in March 2021 filed a federal sexual harassment lawsuit against former Commissioner George Halcovage.