New London — The city has taken disciplinary action against five workers in the Department of Public Works following an investigation of alleged safety violations at the city’s transfer station. 

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

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. 

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 city policies and protocols by bypassing a safety switch designed to prevent the trash compactor from running automatically” about 11 months after Smeeton’s death. Hage’s alleged actions did not cause injury to himself or others, the mayor said. 

When reached by phone Thursday afternoon, Hage referred a reporter’s questions to his attorney, Jason Burdick of the New London law firm of Messier, Massad and Burdick. 

Burdick could not be reached for comment late Thursday afternoon. 

“It’s unfortunate that it has come to this, but when errors of this magnitude are made, the employees involved must be held accountable,” Finizio said in a statement. 

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. 

DPW Director Tim Hanser said he supports the actions taken against Hage and the other four employees. 

“The actions taken today underscore our commitment to public safety and the seriousness with which we take any violations,” Hanser said in a statement. “Moving forward, I will not tolerate anything less than full adherence to our safety protocols.”

After Smeeton’s death, the state Department of Labor’s Division of Occupational Safety and Health (Conn-OSHA) cited New London for “willful” and “serious” safety violations contributing to a hazardous work environment at the transfer station and levied a fine of $10,800 against the city. 

Among the violations found by Conn-OSHA was the failure to have railings or guardrails to prevent people from falling into the trash compactor area. 

The transfer station was cited in March 2010 for having no railings to protect against a possible fall, according to records obtained from the Department of Labor. The director of Conn-OSHA told The Day that because the safety issues cited in 2010 had not been rectified, the agency felt the city displayed “a plain indifference” to safety at the transfer station. 

Smeeton’s death brought to light a number of safety issues at the transfer station, including the fact that no one was manning the compactor’s control room, which includes an emergency shutoff button, when Smeeton fell into the trash compactor, according to the police report on the incident. 

The report, which The Day obtained last May through a Freedom of Information Act request, enumerates several factors that could have contributed to Smeeton’s fall into the compactor, including a lack of safety railings, slippery conditions near the edge of the compactor and a medical condition Smeeton apparently suffered from. 

But, according to the police report, no one saw what caused Smeeton to fall about 15 feet down into the compactor. Police determined Smeeton’s death was accidental, and found no evidence of criminal wrongdoing.

c.young@theday.com 

Twitter: @ColinAYoung