A civil suit filed by three Connoquenessing Township employees against Supervisor Ricky Kradel and the township has been dismissed in Common Pleas Court.

In their October 2024 suit, William Chuba, road superintendent; Timothy Manuel, an operator and truck driver; and Lucas Langer, a truck driver and laborer, claimed that before Supervisor Angela Fleeger took office last January, Kradel told them he didn’t want to see them chasing her and instructed them to not make any sexual advances toward her, according to the suit.

They said Kradel verbally abused, harassed, screamed, yelled at and made allegations toward them about taking breaks and using work uniforms, according to the suit.

In addition, the employees claimed Kradel instructed them to violate safety polices. As examples, they said Kradel told them to work without a flagman, to work with one person in a vehicle for fallen trees, to ignore school buses and to have one person place road signs in an effort to avoid overtime pay.

The suit claimed six counts of employee policy and procedure violations.

In an order issued last week, Judge Kelley Streib sustained the defendant’s preliminary objections that asked for the suit to be dismissed. The objections were sustained with prejudice, which means the suit is permanently resolved.

In the order, Streib wrote that the six counts fail to state a recognized cause of action under state law. The employee handbook, which the employees cited in their suit, is not an ordinance and has not been codified into law, according to the order.

The order says the suit does not contain facts sufficient to support a claim. As an example, Streib noted the suit alleges the township violated employee and personnel policies by not following the employee handbook, but the suit doesn’t claim any action they took that would have triggered the township to take action under the handbook.

The employees’ argument that the contract between the unionized employees and the township does not apply because it doesn’t cover the supervisors is wrong because the contract includes a grievance policy that must be exhausted before the court has jurisdiction, according to the order.

In addition, the employees’ incorrectly argued that the handbook does not contain a procedure to address their complaints because the procedure requires bringing the complaints to the supervisors and Kradel is a supervisor, according to the order. Streib wrote the two other supervisors could address the complaints requiring Kradel to recuse himself.

Streib’s order also says the Pennsylvania Human Relations Act may not be the only remedy for workplace harassment when there is a viable option under a separate statute. The employees did not point to another viable statute and did not file their claims through the act so the court lacks subject matter jurisdiction, according to the order.

Neither the employees’ attorney, Deanna Istik, or Kradel returned messages asking for their response to the ruling.