New London — A lawyer representing the Department of Public Works employee fired last week claims the city has offered to reinstate his employment if he admits to the infraction, an assertion the city has denied. 

Mounir Hage, a city worker in the DPW’s Solid Waste Division, was fired last week following an investigation by Risk Manager Paul Gills and Personnel Administrator Tina Collins, Mayor Daryl Justin Finizio’s office announced. 

After the January 2014 death of Floyd Smeeton, a city resident who apparently fell into a running trash compactor at the transfer station, the city implemented new safety protocols for the facility, Solid Waste Division employees were retrained and DPW enacted a zero-tolerance policy for safety violations at the transfer station, the mayor’s office said. 

Hage was fired because he is alleged to have violated those new safety protocols about 11 months after Smeeton’s death. Hage’s alleged actions did not cause injury to himself or others, the mayor said. 

Hage’s attorney, Jason Burdick of the New London law firm Messier, Massad and Burdick, said Collins “back-peddled on behalf of the Finizio administration and offered to reinstate Mr. Hage’s employment if he admitted misconduct” during a Friday meeting with Hage’s union representative. 

'I think by them saying ‘if you admit it, we’ll take you back,’ it tells me they don’t have any proof of whatever they’re accusing him of,” he said. “Safety should be a priority or a top concern, but I don’t think it has been for this administration. It’s shameful that the Finizio administration has tarnished and harmed Mr. Hage’s reputation without having any factual basis for their allegations."

Finizio said Monday he was not aware of any such offer. 

“I have absolutely no knowledge of that,” the mayor said. 

The mayor said city officials had met with Hage’s union representative during the internal hearing process and that the city intends to follow the standard union grievance process but has had no discussions about bringing any terminated employee back. 

According to Finizio, the investigation that led to Thursday’s discipline began when a DPW employee alleged that Hage used tape to keep the manual trash compactor operation switch depressed. 

“This incident was determined by the city’s professional staff, the risk manager and personnel administrator, to 1) have occurred and 2) warrant termination,” Finizio said Monday. 

Burdick said the problems at the DPW transfer station lie with its “poor management” rather than with any individual employee. 

“My understanding is that he is a longtime employee of the city of New London, he has never been disciplined or admonished, there is nothing in his personnel file,” Burdick said. 

“This is something new for Mr. Hage, which is why it’s highly embarrassing for him to be publicly flogged for this.” 

Aside from Hage, four other DPW employees also were disciplined, though not publicly identified, with sanctions including one reprimand, one “minor suspension” and one “severe suspension,” according to the mayor.

c.young@theday.com

Twitter: @ColinAYoung