New London — The city has agreed to rehire one of the four Department of Public Works employees fired earlier this year as part of the fallout from a man’s death in a trash compacter at the transfer station in 2014.

Mounir Hage, a city employee in the DPW’s Solid Waste Division, is expected to start work again next week thanks to a nearly finalized agreement between Hage, the city and his union, New London AFSCME Local 1378, according to Hage’s attorney, Jason Burdick.

Mayor Daryl Justin Finizio fired Hage in March following investigation by Risk Manager Paul Gills and Personnel Administrator Tina Collins into allegations Hage bypassed a safety switch designed to prevent the trash compactor from automatically running.

At the time of Hage's firing, Finizio said a DPW employee alleged Hage used a plastic knob and duct tape to keep the manual trash compacter operation switch depressed.

In April, Burdick said he sent a letter to the city asking for them to retract their statements about Hage.

He later filed a notice of his intent to sue the city for defamation, negligence, invasion of privacy, misrepresentation, fraud and civil conspiracy.

Burdick said Hage has agreed to drop all of the pending claims as part of the agreement with the city to bring Hage back to work. Hage will return to work without discipline.

“He’s happy to be reinstated,” Burdick said. “I think it was a forgone conclusion because the position of the city wasn’t substantiated by the facts. The decision to terminate him was based on unproven allegations.”

A union representative could not be reached to comment.

City attorney Brian Estep and Burdick declined to release copies of the agreement, citing the fact it had not yet been finalized.

Hage’s firing came more than a year after the January 2014 death of Floyd Smeeton, a city man who fell into a running trash compactor at the transfer station.

The death led to inspections, the discovery of safety violations and a zero tolerance policy enacted by the city at the transfer station.

The state Department of Labor’s Division of Occupational Safety and Health (Conn-OSHA) issued citations against New London for “willful,” and “serious,” safety violations at the transfer station.

Smeeton’s death brought to light safety issues that included the fact that no one was manning the compactor’s control room, which includes an emergency shutoff button, when Smeeton fell into the compacter. Police ruled Smeeton’s death an accident.

Less than two months after Hage was fired, three other employees, including Public Works Director Tim Hanser, were fired after the discovery of yet more safety violations.

Tom Ryan and Okoi Tucker were among the employees fired. The firings were reportedly linked to the discovery of gates left open at the transfer station.

A former state representative and Canterbury first selectman, Brian Sear, now serves as the interim public works director.

A permanent director is not expected to be chosen until after the mayoral election.

g.smith@theday.com

Twitter: @SmittyDay