HOOKSETT, N.H. (AP) – Two town employees fired for gossiping about their boss have lost an appeal to get their jobs back.
Jessica Skorupski and Joanne Drewniak were among four women who were fired without warning in April after a closed-door vote of the Town Council. They appealed their firings at a hearing earlier this month, but learned late Friday night that the council had rejected their bid to be reinstated.
“I was not surprised at all. I didn’t think they would give us our jobs back,” Skorupski said Saturday. “Their minds were made up even before we had the hearing.”
Skorupski and Drewniak, both administrative assistants, were fired along with code enforcement officer Michelle Bonsteel and tax assessor Sandra Piper. According to a lawyer’s fact-finding report, the women lost their jobs because Drewniak referred to Town Administrator David Jodoin in derogatory terms, and because they discussed a rumor that he was having an affair with another female employee.
The women, dubbed the “Hooksett Four,” say they neither started nor spread the rumor, merely questioned why another employee seemed to be getting preferential treatment. No one has said there is any truth to the rumor.
The town’s lawyer, Debra Weiss Ford, did not return calls seeking comment Friday. Town Council Chairman George Longfellow declined to comment, saying the council would respond later. Skorupski said she was told the council would explain its decision to deny her appeal on June 6.
In the meantime, she said she and the others will pursue the matter in court while they look for new jobs.
“We’re going to find good jobs and move on with life,” she said. “They let go four great people, and I’m sure people will look at our reviews and want to hire us.”
Piper has worked for the town for 27 years. Drewniak was just shy of her tenth anniversary with the town. Skorupski worked for the town for eight years and Bonsteel had been on the job about three years.
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