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A firefighter is suing the Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena Airport Authority, claiming he was fired in retaliation for complaining about the alleged falsification by his colleagues of reports involving mandatory Federal Aviation Administration training.
Eric Maricelli’s Los Angeles Superior Court lawsuit filed Friday alleges whisteblower retaliation and seeks unspecified damages against the authority as well as TBI Airport Management, which manages and operates the Burbank airport.
A spokeswoman for the Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena Airport Authority issued a statement Monday saying: “The airport authority was not Mr. Maricelli’s employer and strongly disputes that it has any liability to him. The airport authority considers public safety to be the highest priority and continually meets or exceeds all legal requirements.”
She also said the airport authoriity had not been served with the lawsuit as of Monday afternoon.
Maricelli says in his court papers that he began working for the authority in May 1999. In June 2016, he “began verbally reporting to management that firefighters … were falsifying training reports of mandatory FAA firefighter training, constituting violations of FAA regulations,” the suit alleges.
Last October, the authority hired an outside firm to look into the plaintiff’s allegations, the suit states. He was interviewed by the investigators the next month, “wherein he again reported the department-wide practice of signing false training sheets,” according to his court papers.
In December, Maricelli claims he twice asked the authority’s human resources department to change his shift due to ongoing harassment by his supervisor, “who he reported … for misconduct and creating a hostile work environment.”
In January, Maricelli told the authority’s assistant fire chief that he felt “unsafe” because human resources took no action about his complaints against his supervisor, according to his lawsuit.
Maricelli says he was placed on administrative leave on Jan. 9 after being accused of making “threatening and demanding statements to the assistant fire chief and to human resources.” A week later, Maricelli was fired “in retaliation for making reports of violations of city, state and federal statutes,” the suit alleges.
—City News Service
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