Town officials last week received notice that a former town employee is claiming that the municipality retaliated against her in violation of state and federal law.
Filed with the state Commission on Human Rights and Opportunities or ‘CHRO’ by a woman who worked in the town Finance Department, the complaint accuses the town of violating Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Americans with Disabilities Act.
The complainant has an autoimmune disorder and, as a result, “is substantially limited in her major life activities including, but not limited to, driving, sleeping, walking and moving,” according to the CHRO complaint, received Dec. 9 in the Town Clerk’s office.
In June 2024, it said, the complainant “became concerned” about the wellbeing of a coworker “based on prior comments,” and—following an exchange with the Human Resources Department—reported the information to police. Subsequently, that coworker took a leave of absence and the complainant was assigned that person’s tasks, it said. When that coworker returned, the complainant grew anxious “about possible retaliation” from her, but HR “promised” that “there would never be an occasion” where they were left alone without a manager present, the complaint said.
Even so, the two women were left alone and the complainant was “actively confronted,” leaving the complainant “quite fearful,” it said.
At a later meeting with her supervisor, the complainant was accused of “causing the incident and having an ‘attitude,’ ” it said. Further, the supervisor began retaliating against the complainant by “micromanaging” her work and “also ignoring her,” it said.
In December 2024, the complainant asked for the ability to take “frequent breaks” based on her disability, and also informed the town that she soon would need to take time off for a foot surgery. The supervisor’s response was to retaliate with unprecedented and “unfounded discipline,” the complaint said, claiming “allegations of misappropriations of time, insubordination and performance issues” that were groundless. The supervisor then began tracking “mistakes or perceived mistakes” and, following a disciplinary hearing where findings against the complainant were sustained—and later overturned through a union appeal—began ignoring the complainant.
After surgery and returning to work earlier this year, the supervisor issued more discipline, in part because the complainant had made “an obscene gesture” toward the coworker, the CHRO complaint said. She was suspended without pay and later placed on a “Performance Improvement Plan” that had “no timeline for completion,” set goals “which are intentionally vague and indecipherable as to the proper measure of success,” gave ‘no understanding of the present alleged deficits” in work performance and subjected the complainant to more discrimination.
The supervisor’s conduct “has been strategically designed to set Complainant up for failure, is due in part or in whole to discrimination against Complainant because of her disability, reasonable accommodation requests and Federal and State protected medical leave, and retaliation for the same,” the CHRO complaint said.
The complaint seeks to make the former employee “whole” and order the town pay her “compensatory” and “punitive damages” and pay legal costs, and for the CHRO to “grant such other relief to Complainant as the court deems just and proper.”
The town fired the woman following a discussion in executive session and subsequent unanimous vote by the Board of Selectmen at its Dec. 2 meeting.