NEW ORLEANS — Employees have used the words "prison" and "slavery" to describe what it's like to work for the New Orleans Department of Public Works.
The comparisons come as allegations of abuse, mistreatment, and harassment against employees have been unveiled.
Now, investigations are underway as council members hope to correct the behavior.
WWL Louisiana Reporter Alyssa Curtis explains the allegations.
After incident of alleged years-long mistreatment of city workers was on full display Wednesday at the City Council.
"Their job is a hard, backbreaking job, normally," said Council Vice President JP Morrell. "But the amount of emotional and verbal abuse that they were that they were receiving, and this wasn't hearsay, they literally had the receipts."
Unionized employees from the New Orleans Department of Public Works described what's been called "breathtakingly bad" treatment from their supervisors.
"The abuse that the supervisors give us over there is ridiculous," one employee said during the council meeting. "It's like if they handle us like we're slaves or if we're in jail."
"At one time working for D.P.W was fun and loving. Working for the city of New Orleans now under Jerome Crosby is like you're in prison," he said.
Several employees explained instances of unsafe working conditions. They say there's no proper training of new hires, which they say is against the guidelines.
"It was always that I've been working here this many years you know how to work the vac truck show him and he showed him and he showed him," the employee explained.
But employees say when grievances were filed, they were ripped up or never addressed.
"You've been reporting this regularly to your supervisors at D.P.W. for up to 3 or 4 years?" Councilmember Joe Giarrusso asked the employee during the council meeting.
Yes, the employee replied.
Plus –– employees say supervisors are cursing at them.
"He came to the truck I was working on with ms johnson opened the driver's door and said didn't I tell your stupid a**," another employee said during the meeting. "Didn't say anything I wrote him up, another employee said. The first write-up I gave to Jerome Crosby, I never got a response", he said.
At least one instance was even caught on camera. But that just scratches the surface –– there are also allegations of wage theft, retaliation, unregulated discipline, and more.
Council Vice President JP Morrell says this shouldn't be the culture.
"You have to imagine, over five years, with the head of D.P.W rotating over and over and over again," Morrell said. "There's not consistent leadership at the top. And what that does is, when you don't have a consistent leader, middle management runs rampant."
The city has opened an investigation into these claims.
We reached out to the mayor's office hoping to hear from her, D.P.W. Director Rick Hataway or Chief Administrator Gilbert Montano who's conducting the investigation.
They said no one can comment at this point because it's an open investigation, but they say it will be a thorough one.
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