A municipal employee of 16 years is accusing the town of discrimination based on race, age and gender, records show.
According to a notice that the town received in April from the state Commission on Human Rights and Opportunities or CHRO, the employee—an African American woman, 59—is claiming violations of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Age Discrimination Act of 1967.
In a narrative that forms part of the complainant’s CHRO filing from April, she said that she’s always worked as a part-time administrative assistant, and that she’d met in March 2023 with the town’s director of human resources about increasing her work to full-time.
She was told that there could be opportunities in the Town Clerk’s office or Human Resources Department but that no action has been taken.
Around the same time, in April 2023, the complainant approached the local head of a union that represents some Town Hall workers, according to the complaint. Yet the complainant was unable to join because she works fewer than 20 hours per week, it said. That same month, the human resources director told the complainant’s supervisor that her “hours are not to exceed 19 hours per week,” effective immediately.
“I believe [the HR director’s] swift actions toward me are unfair labor practice and a violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964,” the complaint said.
The complainant then lists three town employees who have received opportunities for additional work while she has not—an African American man in the Parking Department who received hours in Parks & Rec, a Caucasian woman in Health & Human Services who has received additional work in the Finance Department, and a Caucasian woman in Public Works who has received additional work in multiple departments and also appears to be exempt from some requirements laid out in the municipal employee handbook, the complaint said.
“I therefore charge the Town of New Canaan with wilful and internationally unfair Labor practices; breach of Town Employee Handbook; retaliation under CT Fair Employment; discriminatory practices against my race, my gender and my age,” the complaint said.
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