Town officials last week received notice that a former municipal employee filed a complaint with a state civil rights agency claiming discrimination.
The worker, Beth Straubel had already filed an earlier complaint with the state Commission on Human Rights and Opportunities last fall, and was fired from her job as senior accountant in the Finance Department about one month later in December, according to a complaint filed on her behalf by Trumbull-based attorney Daniel Angelone.
“The rationale given to the Complainant [Straubel] by the Respondent [the town] for her termination was false,” according to the complaint, received Oct. 30 in the Town Clerk’s office.
“In addition, Respondent relied in part on alleged past conduct of Complainant as justification for her firing; past conduct to which Respondent had already issued discipline to Complainant,” it continued.
It wasn’t immediately clear what that conduct involved, though a note in the complaint referred to “the ‘middle finger’ gesture.”
According to Angelone, Straubel was fired for her “disability,” though that also wasn’t spelled out or explained in the complaint.
“Respondent’s decision to terminate Complainant was due, in part or in whole, to retaliation based on complainant’s lodging her prior complaints of discrimination and retaliation, particularly her filing of the Original Charges” with the Connecticut CHRO, the complaint said.
The firing “have caused Complainant and her daughter to suffer damages including, but not limited to, economic losses, mental anguish and physical pain,” it said.
She is seeking unspecified punitive and compensatory damages, attorney’s fees and “such other relief … as the Commission deems just and proper,” the complaint said.
The town has 10 days to notify the Commission if it seeks to settle, and 30 days to file an answer otherwise, according to the CHRO.
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