Previously unknown details about what led to a six-figure discrimination settlement between Orono and a former employee include allegations that town officials berated him because of his race and said his “background is a disability.”
Avinash Rude, who is from India, settled his complaint against the town for $110,000 last June, but little was known beyond that it was related to discrimination.
Rude’s complaint to the Maine Human Rights Commission, obtained by the Bangor Daily News, details his allegations that former Town Manager Sophie Wilson and former Assistant Town Manager Belle Ryder discriminated against him based on his race and national origin, created a hostile working environment and retaliated after he reported the treatment.
The settlement was the town’s second major discrimination payout in the past seven years. As a result of the settlement, which surprised some municipal officials and members of the public, the Town Council is now considering new rules for handling similar ones in the future.
The proposed ordinance change would require written settlement agreements of discrimination and harassment complaints against Orono, its employees, appointees or municipal officers to come before the council for approval in a public vote. The council would also vote on compensation to whoever made the complaint.
During a public hearing Monday, Rude urged the council to support the proposed ordinance change and spoke about the power a town manager has, which makes it difficult for the council to know what goes on behind closed doors.
Rude said the town incentivized bad behavior by paying about $95,000 for Wilson’s departure, which the council approved last October, Rude said. The town paid $89,856 to Wilson, who was manager for 12 years, and $5,000 to Bangor law firm Eaton Peabody.
“We will keep seeing discrimination cases because systemic racism exists and much work needs to be done to dismantle it,” he told the Bangor Daily News on Friday. “The proposed small change to increase transparency is important but inadequate to solve the problem.”
A “shift away from white supremacy culture” and proactive steps to end discrimination are needed, he said. Rude, who was an IT and GIS administrator for the town, said he is grateful for the current council’s efforts to change the system.
Rude began working for the town in August 2015. Ryder, who left the town for another job last September, was his direct supervisor, though Wilson took over that role in August 2022.
Rude claimed that Ryder and Wilson violated the town’s policies and discriminated against him by not giving him annual evaluations in 2016, 2017, 2018, 2020, 2021 and as of June 2022. As a consequence, he wasn’t considered for annual pay increases, which was promised to him when he was hired and given to other non-minority employees, according to his complaint.
As a foreign worker under the HB1 visa, Rude said he was entitled to payment given to workers with his qualifications, which is determined by the U.S. Department of Labor. He claimed that from 2016 to June 2022, the town paid him less than required by law.
Throughout Rude’s employment, Ryder “repeatedly made demeaning attacks on my intelligence and character, alternated neglecting all supervision with micromanaging of my work, dismissed my ideas, did not give me credit for the work I did, and unfairly criticized my work,” Rude alleged in the complaint.
Other employees were not subjected to the same treatment, he wrote, which led him to believe Ryder viewed him as less than an equal and acted on discriminatory bias against him.
“Your background is a disability, and we will treat it as such,” Wilson allegedly told Rude during a March 2017 meeting after he withdrew himself from consideration for the town planner position, according to the complaint. Rude took Wilson’s comment to mean he was not a good fit for the role based on his race and national origin.
His complaint described several hostile meetings where town leadership questioned Rude’s competence and confidence. That includes one on January 25, 2022, where one of the women berated him and claimed she was not going to fire him until he had a green card, then retracted the statement and said that he did not have to look at the town as his only future employer, according to the complaint.
Between July 1, 2022, and Rude’s termination on Feb. 12, 2023, Wilson “continued papering my personnel file with multiple disciplinary actions and negative performance reviews, all of which are based on unfounded allegations,” Rude alleged in his complaint.
He claims that the discrimination was damaging to his mental and physical health, along with his reputation. It caused him anxiety, and he feared that he would be fired. At one point, Rude became so distressed that he took two days off from work and sought medical treatment, he said in the complaint.
Orono’s attorney, Matthew Tarasevich of law firm Bernstein Shur, declined to comment Friday. He cited confidentiality per non-disclosure obligations set by the Maine Human Rights Commission and agreed to by both parties.
In March 2022, the town hired a private attorney to investigate Rude’s complaints, and he said he was interviewed April 21, 2022. The attorney determined there was insufficient evidence showing Rude was discriminated against based on his race, national origin or immigration status, the town wrote in its response to the commission. It also noted there was not enough evidence to support that Rude was subjected to a hostile work environment and was retaliated against.
In its response to a Maine Human Rights Commission request for information, the town said it had gone to great lengths to help Rude be successful and productive and didn’t discriminate or retaliate against him.
