Quit or get off the pot.
That was the message UPS delivered to one of its sales managers, who was forced into early retirement over his irritable bowel syndrome, the employee charges in a $3 million lawsuit that will be heard tomorrow in Brooklyn federal court.
Peter Mihalick, 57, of Saint James, L.I., said he was essentially fired after 34 years, when he was transferred to a Brooklyn office in 2003 and forced to drive two hours or more to work.
His IBS made the commute highly uncomfortable, if not impossible, and the stress affected his health, he claims.
He said he was constantly stopping to use the restroom – and sometimes even had to relieve himself along the roadside – said his lawyer, Tom Ricotta.
Even more humiliating, Mihalick at times would have “accidents” and couldn’t even make it to work, his lawyer said.
When Mihalick, who’d worked for years out of the Melville, L.I., office, asked to be transferred back due to his condition, the answer was “no,” he said. When he asked to start earlier than 8 a.m. to avoid rush hour, again the answer was no.
The stress so worsened his condition that Mihalick quit his $85,000-a-year job in 2005.
Mihalick’s lawyers say UPS violated the Americans with Disabilities Act.
Lawyers for UPS refused to comment.