PITTSBURGH – A construction inspector who reported that groundwater categorized as “contaminated” and slotted for removal from his job site was in fact not polluted, alleges that his voicing of this concern to management led to retaliation, culminating with his ultimately being fired from the company.
Mark Austin of McKean County filed suit in the Allegheny County Court of Common Pleas on July 18 versus Gannet Fleming, of Pittsburgh.
“At all times relevant to this complaint, Mark Austin was employed by GF as a Construction Inspector. In or about the spring of 2021, Austin was working as Construction Inspector on a project involving the construction of a building for the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation. PennDOT hired a third-party sub-contractor to haul contaminated groundwater/stormwater from the site. This service was costing Pennsylvania taxpayers millions of dollars. Austin suspected that the water was not contaminated and did not need to be removed. He had tests conducted which confirmed that the ground water was not contaminated,” the suit says.
“Austin reported the test results to PennDOT’s on-site representatives because he believed, in good faith, that PennDOT was wasting millions of dollars of taxpayer money to remove and transport groundwater which did not need to be removed or transported. On Aug. 24, 2021, shortly after he reported his findings to PennDOT, Austin received a phone call from his immediate supervisor, Bob Sciullo. During this call, Sciullo yelled at Austin and instructed him to ignore his findings regarding the groundwater. Two days later, Sciullo told Austin that he was being removed from a Fall 2021 project for which he had been specifically requested by Sciullo’s supervisor.”
The suit adds that Sciullo and his girlfriend (who is also Sciullo’s immediate subordinate) began to criticize Austin’s work performance and “subject him to different standards than other employees.”
“On Oct. 22, 2021, Sciullo changed Austin’s long-standing work schedule. Specifically, he demanded that Austin be physically at the worksite Monday through Friday. Austin had been working on site Monday through Thursday for several months without incident or issue, and his assistant (who was not a GF employee) was always present on Fridays. Sciullo told Austin that GF was making the change because a GF inspector needed to be on site every day. The change was a significant hardship to Austin because of the distance he was required to travel to the site from his home,” the suit states.
“On Jan. 20, 2022, Sciullo told Austin that the project no longer needed two inspectors. He removed Austin from the project, but retained his younger, less-experienced assistant. This directly conflicted with Sciullo’s representations that a GF inspector was required to be on site five days a week. On Jan. 20, 2022, GF chose not to reassign Austin to another project and instead terminated his employment.”
For violation of the Pennsylvania Whistleblower Law, the plaintiff is seeking in excess of the limits of arbitration to include front pay, back pay, compensatory damages and such other relief as is appropriate and equitable under the circumstances, plus attorney’s fees and costs incident to the successful completion of this litigation.
The plaintiff is represented by Margaret S. Coleman of O’Brien Coleman & Wright, in Pittsburgh.
The defendants has not yet retained legal counsel.
Allegheny County Court of Common Pleas case GD-22-008822
From the Pennsylvania Record: Reach Courts Reporter Nicholas Malfitano at nick.malfitano@therecordinc.com