Former Glenn O. Hawbaker employee settles federal discrimination lawsuit against company
A former Glenn O. Hawbaker employee settled Tuesday a federal employment discrimination lawsuit he filed against the State College-based construction and engineering company.
Terms of the settlement were not disclosed.
Jonathan Bamat was working at a company work site in August 2018 when he reported his head hurt. He reported the injury to his supervisor and discussed his intention to seek worker’s compensation benefits, federal Judge Matthew Brann wrote in October.
A Hawbaker supervisor later told the company’s equal opportunity opportunity officer he believed Bamat was “scheming for compensation” and “want(ed) to get rid of him before something happened,” Brann wrote.
The company’s tumultuous relationship with Bamat worsened days later, when Bamat urinated between a truck along the side of a road.
Workers routinely urinated outside of a portable toilet at Hawbaker work sites, Brann wrote.
Bamat, who had no prior warnings or reprimands, was later fired. He was the only Hawbaker employee in at least five years to be fired or disciplined in any way for urinating at a work site, Brann wrote.
“The (equal employment opportunity officer’s) notes support a direct connection between Bamat’s firing and both his disability and his expressed desire to seek worker’s compensation,” Brann wrote. “Additionally, the close temporal proximity of only four days is unusually suggestive of an unlawful motive.”
Bamat’s attorney Tom Anderson declined to comment Wednesday. Hawbaker attorneys Schaun Henry and Langdon Ramsburg did not respond to a request for comment.
This story was originally published April 29, 2020 at 11:32 AM.