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Maintenance Worker: School District Fired Me Unfairly After I Hurt My Knee
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A former New Canaan Public Schools maintenance worker has filed a complaint with the state that the district fired him unfairly on the basis of a “disability” he developed as a result of a work-related accident. Franco Pirri of Wilton tore the meniscus in his left knee in October 2015, according to an affidavit with the Connecticut Commission on Human Rights and Opportunities. He returned to work at New Canaan High School after surgery, a few months later, and at that time the district “threatened that I could only return to work if I took a fitness for duty test” even though he could perform his job as a lead maintenance II worker “with limited accommodations,” according to the affidavit, filed by attorney David Rintoul of Bridgeport-based Zeldes, Needle & Cooper PC. The Board of Education has 30 days to answer the complaint, according to Rintoul’s filing, dated June 11. After Pirri objected, the school “backed down from its demand” of a fitness test, it said.