Former Allentown HR Director files suit against city, alleges Mayor Tuerk used racial, ageist slurs | State

ALLENTOWN, Pa. – In a 14-page lawsuit, former Allentown HR Director Nadeem Shahzad claims that during his two months on the job Mayor Matt Tuerk pressured him to fire an employee that had, “filed her own discrimination charge against the city.”

Marc Weinstein is Shazad’s attorney.

“Tuerk wanted her out. Shahzad declined. He said her performance was fine, and Mayor then let Shahzad go, and that’s illegal,” said Weinstein.

Shahzad says he told Tuerk firing the employee in question “would have been illegal retaliation.”

The lawsuit also claims that “Tuerk referred to the employee, and others who raised concerns of discrimination, as ‘troublemakers’.”

And that during Shahzad’s meetings with the mayor, Tuerk called him a “Muslim old man.” The lawsuit claims that “Tuerk repeated that slur on at least three other occasions.”

“Mayor Tuerk was not doing it in a flattering way. And again, it’s, it’s not just illegal, but it’s stupid,” said Weinstein.

The lawsuit claims that on August 18, 2023, Tuerk “told the Plaintiff he would be immediately fired if he did not resign.”

69 News spoke to Shahzad days after the separation.

“He said, ‘your choice.’ I said, ‘Well, I know if you fire me, I’ll be escorted out.’ So in that case, I would rather resign and leave myself, and that’s what I chose to do,” said Shahzad.

At the time, the mayor’s office maintained that Shahzad resigned.

Shahzad says when he went to apply for unemployment benefits, the Tuerk administration “misled Commonwealth officials by representing that plaintiff had voluntarily quit, no reason given and that continuing work remained available had plaintiff not quit.”

Again, the city says it doesn’t comment on active litigation.

Allegations of discrimination at Allentown City Hall and the systems in place to report it have been the subject of several investigations in recent years.

One was by the law firm Duane Morris that recommended an overhaul of HR practices, as well as one conducted by former FBI agent Scott Curtis.

The Duane Morris and Curtis reports have not been made public.

In September, city council said while there were isolated incidences of discriminatory conduct, city council believes those instances have been addressed and there is no systemic issue in city government.