Three Connoquenessing Township employees are suing the township and a township supervisor for harassment and violating policies.

William Chuba, road superintendent; Timothy Manuel, an operator and truck driver; and Lucas Langer, a truck driver and laborer, filed suit last week against Supervisor Ricky Kradel and the township seeking unspecified damages in excess of $35,000.

The employees claim that before Supervisor Angela Fleeger took office in January, Kradle 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 has 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 claim in the suit that Kradel instructed them to violate safety polices. As examples, they said Kradel told them to work without a flagman, work with one person in a vehicle for fallen trees, ignore school buses and have one person place road signs in an effort to avoid overtime pay.

The 2022 collective bargaining agreement that covers the employees has a discrimination and harassment policy that indicates employers shall not discriminate on the basis of race, sex, age, disability, national origin or religion in regards to employment and personnel matters, but has no guidelines for reporting harassment, according to the suit.

Because the agreement does not cover township supervisors or their actions, the plaintiffs can‘t be required to follow it, according to the suit.

The agreement has a grievance procedure, but it can’t be used because the agreement doesn’t cover the actions of a supervisor, according to the suit.

The suit contains six counts of violations of township employee policies and procedures.

Neither Kradel or Fleeger could be reached for comment.