Fired Cianbro worker wins lawsuit

BANGOR – A federal jury has ordered Cianbro Corp. to pay a former employee $747,000 for firing him because of his disability.

Ronald Harding, 59, of Waterville, who worked for the construction company for 18 years, was fired in 2002 five weeks after his supervisor learned he had fibromyalgia, a chronic pain condition, according to court documents.

The trial at U.S. District Court in Bangor concluded late Tuesday, wrapping up six days of deliberations in the civil suit. The jury awarded Harding $560,000 in back pay, $137,000 for emotional distress, and $50,000 in punitive damages, according to Harding’s attorney, Jeffrey Young of Topsham.

Possible additional damages from lost future earnings, attorneys’ fees and interest have yet to be determined, he said.

“Mr. Harding and I hope that this sends a message to Cianbro and other employees that productive disabled employees should be respected and encouraged, not terminated,” Young said in press release issued Wednesday.

Harding now is employed at a Waterville logging company, earning less than a third of his salary with Cianbro, Young said.

Cianbro representatives argued that Harding was terminated because his co-workers and supervisors found him uncooperative and insubordinate, not because of his illness, court documents state.

“We’re disappointed with the verdict, and we respectfully disagree with the verdict,” Rita Bubar, human resources manager for Cianbro, said Wednesday.

Bubar, who was present for the trial, noted that the Maine Human Rights Commission reviewed Harding’s claim against Cianbro and in 2004 found it had no reasonable grounds. The commission’s ruling was not allowed into the jury’s consideration in the civil suit.

Over the course of his employment with Cianbro, Harding had repeated run-ins with supervisors and co-workers, some of whom refused to work with him, according to Cianbro’s trial brief. Shortly before he was fired, Harding ignored directions about where to locate a power source for a crane on the Portland pipeline pier, which caused a safety issue and was expensive to fix, the brief states.

Harding’s attorney argued that only a few employees out of 100 ever had problems with him. On the pipeline project, Harding followed a construction manager’s instructions about where to place the power source for the crane, Young said.

That project was Cianbro’s largest electrical undertaking to date, and the supervisor who fired Harding was concerned that he wouldn’t be able to handle the dramatic increase in work hours due to his illness, Young argued.

Harding claimed that the company subsequently failed to investigate after he complained he was fired because of his disability, according to court documents.

Cianbro disputed that claim, arguing that Harding never raised such a concern with company officials, court documents state.