Former Westmoreland caseworker claims he was fired because of disability

A New Stanton man who worked for one month as a caseworker for the Westmoreland County Children’s Bureau claims he was fired earlier this year because he was disabled.

In a two-count lawsuit filed last week in U.S. District Court in Pittsburgh, Sean Lally contends he was discriminated against by supervisors in the county’s child welfare office, where he was hired in March to work as a caseworker.

According to court documents, Lally, who has a prosthetic leg, claimed he was fired because his supervisors were uncomfortable being around him, failed to assign him cases, treated him differently from other employees and ultimately concocted a false reason to remove him from the job.

Lally, in the lawsuit, said county officials fired him for improperly working when he was supposed to be on sick leave. He claimed administrators directed him to record that he missed a day of work after taking off for an illness despite not having accrued enough time for medical leave.

“We don’t want people like you here,” Lally claims he was told by a supervisor at the time of his firing.

“The reasons given by the county for the plaintiff’s termination was a pretext. The real reason he was fired was because of his disability,” according to claims in the lawsuit.

Westmoreland County Solicitor Melissa Guiddy declined to comment on the allegations in the lawsuit.

Lally previously was Fayette County controller and also worked as Monroeville’s chief financial officer.