Workplace violations alleged at hearing of Hingham sewer worker
A Hingham Sewer Department staffer says he and fellow employees have been forced to work in hostile environment that includes sexual harassment and unsafe working conditions since 2006, according to testimony at a sometimes raucous disciplinary hearing Tuesday.
Stephen Dempsey, 44, made the allegations as the Sewer Commission, a three-person elected board, considers firing him for alleged insubordination in March 2010.
At Tuesday's hearing in Town Hall, Dempsey, wearing shorts and a short-sleeved shirt and flanked by his attorney and a Teamsters union representative, argued that the town is trying to fire him because he filed a complaint in June with the Massachusetts Division of Occupational Safety about working conditions in the town’s pump stations.
“This commission should be ashamed of themselves,” Dempsey said, reading from a statement.
The town maintains 13 stations that pump raw sewage, including human waste, through 33 miles of pipes, according to the town’s website. Most of Dempsey's complaint to state authorities involved the Bayberry Station.
Dempsey alleged in his testimony that on March 15, colleague Larry Hallahan was hit with two electrical shocks while working at the Bayberry Station, and that the town has failed to fix the cause the accident and instead posted a sign instructing employees not to touch the metal at the station.
“There may still be a hazardous situation down there,” Dempsey told the commission.
The Bayberry station was also the site of a fire in 2008, Dempsey said.
Sewer Commissioner Michael A. Salerno, asked about safety conditions after the hearing, said “there are always safety concerns” on the job and that the commission takes its responsibility to protect employees seriously.
“We are addressing safety concerns,” Salerno said.
The hearing was called by the commission and Town Administrator Kevin Paicos to review the conduct of Dempsey, who officials say has been suspended from work a total of three times, twice by the Department of Public Works and once by the Sewer Department. Dempsey said one of those suspensions was overruled by the commission.
On March 11, the day in question, Dempsey’s supervisor, Jim Dow, said in his testimony and a document submitted to the town that he watched Dempsey and another employee “doing nothing” at the Howe Street Station.
After Dow asked them “to be more productive with their time,” a verbal exchange ensued between Dow and Dempsey, in which Dow said Dempsey lied about his actions at work and accused Dow and Salerno of “being head hunters” out for Dempsey’s job.
Dempsey’s attorney, Michael A. Feinberg, shifted the focus to the commission members and Dow.
Dow, who has been in charge of the Sewer Department since 1991, said he has issued four verbal warnings against Dempsey since 2004. In his cross-examination of Dow, Feinberg argued that Dempsey wouldn't have been sure he was even being reprimanded because of Dow's poor communication and management practices.
Dow, pressed by Feinberg about the timing of his disciplinary actions after the March incident, said he raised the issue at the May 25 meeting of the Sewer Commission, which instructed him to discuss it with Paicos, who met with Dow in early June.
It remains unclear whether the complaint with the Division of Occupational Safety, which Paicos said was filed anonymously, was before or after Paicos and the commission decided to summon Dempsey for Tuesday’s disciplinary hearing.
When Feinberg asked Dow about Dempsey’s complaint to the state, Salerno, acting as chairman, blocked the line of questioning, saying “that incident has nothing to do with this.”
“That incident has everything to do with this,” Feinberg replied.
Salerno, raising his voice and slamming his fist repeatedly on the table to stop Feinberg, was shouted over by Teamsters Business Agent Steven South, who wanted Feinberg to continue the line of questioning. At that point, Andrea Young of the Historic Commission came in the room to ask that the noise be kept down because it was disrupting her meeting next door.
Paicos then suggested another of the several recesses in the nearly four-hour meeting. Eventually, the commission decided to suspend the hearing to consult attorneys before Feinberg continues questioning about conditions of the pump station, which is the subject of a separate unfair labor practices complaint.
In his testimony, Dempsey also said that he and the crew had been subject to sexual harassment by Dow in 2007, saying the supervisor would bring “computer enhanced pictures of the crew” into work.
“He would cut and paste our faces on various pictures, most of them pornographic,” Dempsey told the commission. “He would post the pictures on our union bulletin board and sometimes throw darts at them,” Dempsey said.
The practice ended, Dempsey testified, after Selectman John Riley visited the station.
Dempsey, who brought some of the images with him but did not show them at the hearing, said some of the other images had been destroyed.
Dow, asked by a reporter after the hearing about the allegations against him, said he could not comment on an ongoing personnel matter.
The commission adjourned without making any decisions about Dempsey’s possible termination and is expected to reconvene in a few weeks.
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