{"id":18072,"date":"2025-10-28T21:32:07","date_gmt":"2025-10-28T21:32:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/18072\/"},"modified":"2025-10-28T21:32:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-28T21:32:07","slug":"allentown-sued-by-former-hr-director-who-claims-ousting-was-illegal-retaliation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/18072\/","title":{"rendered":"Allentown sued by former HR director who claims ousting was ‘illegal retaliation’"},"content":{"rendered":"

ALLENTOWN, Pa. \u2014 The man who was hired two years ago<\/a> to lead Allentown\u2019s human resources department, but who lasted less than two months, is suing the city over his quick departure.<\/p>\n

Nadeem Shahzad in August 2023 said he was illegally fired as HR director for refusing to fire an employee the mayor deemed a \u201ctroublemaker.\u201d Shahzad later said he was forced to resign by Mayor Matt Tuerk.<\/p>\n

He said then that he planned to pursue litigation<\/a> against the city for terminating him without valid cause after just 35 working days.<\/p>\n

“My hope is that through the legal process, the truth will prevail and justice will be served,” Shahzad wrote two years ago in an email obtained by LehighValleyNews.com.<\/p>\n

Shahzad followed through on that pledge Monday by filing a lawsuit in federal court alleging illegal retaliation and discrimination were why he left his position as HR director under a cloud.<\/p>\n

He also said he has been unable to access unemployment benefits or find work because the city filed \u201cfalse statements\u201d that state Shahzad \u201cvoluntarily quit.\u201d<\/p>\n

Shahzad is seeking an unspecified amount of lost wages, benefits and bonuses he said he would have otherwise earned.<\/p>\n

Long investigation, large legal costs<\/p>\n

Allentown City Council unanimously approved Shahzad\u2019s hiring in June 2023. <\/p>\n

The former HR director for Delaware County and Nassau County, New York, he was tabbed to take over the city\u2019s HR department amid high turnover in city jobs.<\/p>\n

About a month into his tenure, a five-page letter<\/a> \u2014 published on Allentown NAACP letterhead \u2014 expressed concerns over reports of racism and discrimination under Tuerk\u2019s administration.<\/p>\n

A letter purportedly sent by the local NAACP prompted an investigation that found \u201cno systemic issue of racial \u2026 discrimination\u201d and cost taxpayers more than $500,000 across two years.<\/p>\n

The letter listed \u201ca concerning number of complaints from Black and Brown employees,\u201d including allegations that white police officers were allowed to cheat on tests \u2014 giving them a better shot at promotions \u2014 and verbally abused their Black colleagues with threats and racial slurs.<\/p>\n

Leaders of the local NAACP chapter distanced themselves from the letter after its release.<\/p>\n

Barbara Redmond, a former secretary for the chapter, issued the letter. She was stripped of her membership by the national organization for six years over her actions, according to officials.<\/p>\n

That letter prompted an investigation that found \u201cno systemic issue of racial \u2026 discrimination\u201d and cost taxpayers more than $500,000<\/a> across two years.<\/p>\n

Council in October 2023 approved an independent investigation into reported allegations of racism and discrimination by and against city employees in recent years.<\/p>\n

Eight months later, members hired former FBI agent Scott Curtis, who led the investigation into former Mayor Ed Pawlowski.<\/p>\n

Curtis completed dozens of interviews and racked up about $68,000 in legal fees without being paid before council suspended its contract with him in December.<\/p>\n

Council a month later hired Duane Morris LLC to lead a somewhat-reined-in investigation.<\/p>\n

Duane Morris is set to make more than $375,000 for five months of work on its policy probe.<\/p>\n

And a power struggle between council and the mayor over Curtis\u2019 investigation ran up a further $113,000 in legal fees.<\/p>\n

Resign or be fired: Suit<\/p>\n

Shahzad alleges he was fired after refusing to terminate Karen Ocasio, who repeatedly called for an investigation after the NAACP-linked letter was published.<\/p>\n

She also told council members she filed discrimination complaints against the city with Pennsylvania’s equal-employment and human-relations commissions.<\/p>\n

Shahzad evaluated Ocasio\u2019s work performance but \u201cfound no deficiencies and declined to terminate her employment,\u201d the lawsuit states.<\/p>\n

Tuerk gave Shahzad a resignation letter \u201cin the presence of a city lawyer\u201d and told him \u201che would be immediately fired if he did not resign. Tuerk then handed [Shahzad] a resignation letter.”<\/p>\n

Nadeem Shahzad lawsuit<\/p>\n

It alleges Tuerk gave Shahzad a resignation letter \u201cin the presence of a city lawyer\u201d and told him \u201che would be immediately fired if he did not resign.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cTuerk then handed [Shahzad] a resignation letter,” the lawsuit states. It says Shahzad signed it.<\/p>\n

Tuerk fired Ocasio in November 2023; that prompted a City Council no-confidence vote<\/a> in the mayor a month later. <\/p>\n

Shahzad also alleges Tuerk used a racially motivated slur against him on multiple occasions.<\/p>\n

Allentown spokesperson Genesis Ortega on Tuesday said the city does not comment on pending litigation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ALLENTOWN, Pa. \u2014 The man who was hired two years ago to lead Allentown\u2019s human resources department, but…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":18073,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[119,1683,3732,12813,12814,121,12812,2953,2454,120,12810,12811,12815],"class_list":["post-18072","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-allentown","tag-allentown","tag-allentown-city-hall","tag-allentown-discrimination","tag-allentown-discrimination-lawsuit","tag-allentown-federal-lawsuit","tag-allentown-headlines","tag-allentown-hr-director-lawsuit","tag-allentown-investigation","tag-allentown-mayor","tag-allentown-news","tag-allentown-racism","tag-nadeem-shahzad","tag-new-allentown-lawsuit"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18072","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18072"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18072\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18073"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18072"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18072"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18072"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}