A former part-time Secaucus Department of Public Works (DPW) laborer/driver who was fired last year alleges in a lawsuit that he was told to “man the f*** up,” among other insults including homophobic slurs, after sustaining work-related injuries.
By John Heinis/Hudson County View
Craig O’Keeffe, who was hired in 2008, filed a six-count lawsuit in Hudson County Superior Court on September 11th alleging discrimination, retaliation, a hostile work environment, and disability discrimination ever since getting hurt on the job in August 2019.
“The beratement [sic] and harassment included but was not limited to supervisors and co- workers calling Mr. O’Keeffe ‘b****’, ‘p****’, ‘c***’, ‘f*****’, ‘sissy’ and telling the Plaintiff to ‘stop being a little girl’ and to ‘man the f*** up,'” the court filing contends.
“Supervisors further said about the Plaintiff that ‘this p**** can’t do this detail’, and “all he’s going to do is b**** and complain’ and ‘look at this little b*** walking around (acting) as if he’s really injured.'”
Through his attorney Evan Goldman, a partner at the Hackensack-based firm Goldman Davis Krumholz & Dillon, P.C., O’Keeffe says he tore his left rotator cuff and his right rotator cuff in separate injuries sustained while working in 2020 and 2021. Both required surgery.
In February 2022, about five months after his second surgery, he returned to his job with a doctor’s note that requested he be limited to desk duty. When the note was not honored and he was assigned manual labor, he left work for the day, the suit says.
Since he could not perform any tasks requiring lifting or pulling, he decided to use sick, personal, and vacation days so that he would not be back at work until he was fully healed, returning in May of the same year.
While he received accommodations this time, he needed yet another surgery the following month, causing him to be out for another two months.
“In August 2022, Mr. O’Keeffe returned to work at SDPW. His left arm was in a sling and his doctor provided a note advising SDPW he was not permitted to perform work requiring use of his left arm. Nevertheless, SDPW assigned the Plaintiff to a detail that still required the use of Mr. O’Keeffe’s arm,” he states via the court filing.
“For two weeks Mr. O’Keeffe showed up to his detail but could not perform any work due to his arm being in a sling. The Plaintiff complained to management and his supervisors, including Defendant [Kevin] O’Connor, Ed Roesing, Frank Sasso, Jason Leppin, and Rob Michaelkovich, that his disability prohibited him from performing the work assigned. Mr. O’Keeffe’s supervisors took no action.”
After O’Keeffe was able to remove his sling, his doctor advised him not to use his left arm, but his employer allegedly ignored that request, too. Then in April 2023, he required elbow surgery and could not work for two weeks.
“In May 2023, Plaintiff returned to work at SDPW with the same accommodation requirement, no use of his left arm. Mr. O’Keeffe was assigned to another detail and was told by his supervisors that the detail was the lightest one available, however, he was still unable to perform the work without using his left arm,” Goldman wrote in the lawsuit.
“After Mr. O’Keeffe was forced to miss more workdays due to the pain from his injuries in August 2023, SDPW terminated his employment.”
While he allegedly complained to O’Connor, the DPW superintendent, about discrimination, he never appeared to be taken seriously, asserting that at a meeting with O’Connor and other supervisors at the end of 2021, they decided O’Keefe was “just faking all of it.”
“In February 2023, Mr. O’Keeffe’s co-worker put a sticker on the Plaintiff’s right shoulder that said, ‘stay away, injury zone.’ Mr. O’Keeffe complained to Defendant O’Connor about this incident,” the lawsuit claims.
“In response, Mr. O’Connor met with Mr. O’Keeffe and the co-worker and told the co-worker this behavior would not be tolerated, however, to the Plaintiff’s knowledge, the co-worker received no further warning, nor was he disciplined for the discriminating acts. Despite Mr. O’Keeffe’s many complaints directly to Mr. O’Connor, this was the only time Defendant O’Connor ever took action responding to Plaintiff’s constant complaints about the discrimination and harassment against him.”
As a result, O’Keeffe is seeking actual, compensatory, incidental, consequential, and punitive damages, along with attorneys’ fees and costs of suit, pre- and post-judgment interest, as well as any other relief the court deems just and equitable.
Secaucus Town Administrator Gary Jeffas declined to comment on the specifics in the suit, but said they “dispute the allegations” made.
“We are in receipt of the Complaint and dispute the allegations. The matter has been forwarded to our insurance carrier for review and handling. We do not have any further comments at this time.”