WEEHAWKEN — Assistant Recycling Coordinator Pilar Bardroff, with her attorney, Louis Zayas, filed suit on Jan. 9 against the township of Weehawken for alleged sex discrimination, hostile work environment, whistle blowing, and civil rights violations.
The suit states that Bardroff, a municipal employee of the town since 1992, applied for the recycling coordinator position after the former coordinator retired in 2007, but was allegedly denied the job. The suit says a new male coordinator was hired in 2010 despite Bardroff’s repeated requests and acquired recycling certification. The suit says that although Bardroff’s duties are similar to his, the current coordinator’s salary exceeds hers by approximately $30,000 per year.
Bardroff also claims that her office at the Department of Public Works is allegedly in violation of several health codes and that she has been treated several times by a doctor for petroleum fumes, multiple insect bites, chemical smells, and lack of heat.
The suit also claims her office is in view of “obscene and offensive graffiti” consisting of two drawings of male and female sexual organs, and that the township has allegedly refused to clean it up for three years.
In the suit, Bardoff also alleges that her locked file cabinet was broken into and that her personal mail has been withheld for over a year as part of coworkers’ alleged attempts to “isolate her, creating a hostile work environment in retaliation for her complaints.”
“I haven’t seen the lawsuit,” Mayor Richard Turner said.
As a sign of the tough economic times, he continued, “these lawsuits all come down to people needing more money. Every lawsuit you see against municipalities has the same standard language.”
Turner said the town’s attorneys will “sift through the facts and fiction to deal with the case.” — Gennarose Pope