Workplace Litigation
Why an Army Veteran Took Kiewit to Court: PTSD and Mental Health
Did a supervisor cross the line in his dealings with an Iraq combat veteran?
When a Kiewit Power Constructors supervisor allegedly made caustic remarks to a quality control manager named John (not his real name), it led to a series of events that were bad for the U.S. Army combat veteran hired to work in Albany, N.Y., and his employer.
John filed a federal lawsuit in 2024 accusing the supervisor and Kiewit of violating anti-discrimination laws protecting veterans and the disabled. The case is still in the preliminary stages but it reflects some workplace complications that surround a supervisor's manner of dealing with staff and the sensitivities needed in managing people who have disabilities.
Similar workplace discrimination lawsuits have erupted in other courts involving industry firm employees with special disabilities, such as a recent case involving consultant Terracon and a Gen Z engineer.
Kiewit Power Constructors, the defendant in John's lawsuit, is owned by a Kiewit Corp. subsidiary.
According to the complaint, John's 2004 deployment in Iraq involved firefights and other combat scenarios that eventually caused trauma that made him unable to perform his duties and eventually led to a military discharge in December 2005. The following years saw John unable to work, also experiencing "housing instability" and eventually receiving a diagnosis of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), he stated.
John began a $124,000-a-year job as a quality manager for Kiewit Power Constructors in 2022, first in Kansas and then the next year in Albany. He alledged that his manager in Albany first gave him the silent treatment, then began making caustic comments and insults that included John's weight and even that he used medication to treat his PTSD.
The comments targeted John's "struggles with mental health and related disabilities," said his complaint.
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In 2024 another Kiewit quality control specialist reported the allegedly discriminatory comments directed to John, or about him, to the unit's human resources director, his complaint alleges. Instead of disciplining the supervisor, John's managers brought up the subject of transferring John to another city, the complaint stated. He was subsequently given a transfer to Texas, cutting him off from family and home in New York, after which he resigned instead, according to his suit.
That resignation qualified under law as a "constructive discharge," John claimed—a term often used to describe when an employee faces workplace change that triggers a resignation. He claimed that action and his other treatment violated the American with Disabilities Act and New York State Human Rights Law.
Kiewit: Claims Don't Measure Up
Kiewit sought to knock out much of the lawsuit in a partial motion to dismiss filed last August, arguing that the complaint failed to state a claim under the various laws involved, including those related to retaliation and constructive discharge.
The company contended that the remarks made by John's supervisor were neither frequent nor severe enough to qualify as harassment under the law or as a hostile work environment—another widely used legal standard in such matters.
Also, the alleged harassment was not directed at a condition that "qualified as an ADA disability," Kiewit argued. John also failed to exhaust company administrative remedies available to him for his American with Disabilities Act hostile work environment claim, the firm stated.
Federal court records show no response yet on the motion to dismiss, with the last court filing in the case made in December.
