AUGUSTA – A Perry seamstress failed to convince the Maine Human Right Commission on Monday she was fired from her job for “blowing the whistle” on electrical hazards in the workplace.

In a 3-1 decision, the panel concluded Anna Pottle had not been discriminated against by her former employer, Recollections of Eastport. Instead, the commission’s investigator concluded that when Pottle walked off the job in a dispute over a sewing machine on March 29, 2001, the firm’s owner presumed her employee had quit – particularly when she failed to show up for work on time the following day.

But Pottle maintained that when Recollections moved into an older building in Eastport two years ago, the owners should have paid more attention to the antiquated electrical system serving a business that relied on adequate power to run steam irons and sewing machines. Pottle told the commissioners that fuses were blowing frequently at the business and that even after the owners upgraded from a 60-amp to a 100-amp service box, power problems continued to plague the workplace.

Pottle said the recurring electrical problems peaked on March 22, 2001, when the lights flickered and one of the sewing machines ground to a halt. She said she told Recollections owner Marianne Dewey that she was overloading the circuit by plugging too many electrical devices into a multi-strip outlet.

“I remarked at the time that you can’t plug everything into one power strip just because there are enough holes in it – that that was just begging for trouble,” Pottle said.

Dewey told the panel’s investigator that Pottle was exaggerating the electrical deficiencies at the business and that the real dispute between her and the employee centered on Pottle’s pace of work. Although she described Pottle as a “very good seamstress,” Dewey said the employee was falling behind in her work.

The owner said Pottle blamed her reduced work output on an unreliable sewing machine and refused the owner’s offer of a substitute machine. The owner claimed Pottle responded to her offer with two words: “Don’t bother” – and then walked off the job. Pottle doesn’t deny making that statement, but said she added that she would be back when the sewing machine she had been working with was repaired.

Dewey told the investigator she never heard the rest of Pottle’s statement and assumed she was quitting when she didn’t show up for work on time the next day. She also disputed the “whistle blowing” claim since Pottle never complained to any state agency about electrical problems in the workplace.

Gregory Dorr, a Bangor lawyer representing Recollections, said at no time did Pottle ever express any official complaints about safety on the job.

“There was no verbal or written report by Ms. Pottle concerning safety hazards,” he said. “Recollections’ perspective is that the separation of employment didn’t result from anything to do with the electrical system.”

Pottle said she left the work place and did not use one of the sewing machines offered by Dewey because it did not possess the features she needed to get the job done. Susan Clark, the commission’s investigator, concluded Pottle should have at least “tried” to finish the work on an alternate machine instead of going home.

“It is not surprising that this made an angry employer ever angrier,” Clark wrote in recommending that discrimination had not taken place.

With commission member Paul Vestal casting the dissenting vote, the remaining three panelists present upheld Clark’s recommendation.

Cases before the Maine Human Rights Commission on Monday resulting in findings that discrimination had not taken place also included the following:

. Jennifer Poulin of Waterville against MBNA New England of Camden.

. Edward Kezer of Plymouth against Eastern Maine Medical Center of Bangor.

. Leticia Waugh of Kingfield against the Sugarloaf Mountain Corp. of Kingfield.

. Phyllis Fleming of Thomaston against New England 800 Co., doing business as Taction of Waldoboro.

. Roger Pelletier of Medway against H.E. Sargent Inc. of Stillwater.

. William Wilkie of Belfast against MBNA New England of Camden.