ORLANDO, Fla. — Joseph Donadio, a former TSA employee at Orlando International Airport, remembers when his manager crossed a line, a time he describes as a "dark day" in his career.
- Orlando TSA employees speaking out about hostile work culture
- Former workers say there has been inappropriate physical contact
- Tampa-based lawyer says she represents victims of workplace violence
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"I was very confused. I couldn’t believe he put his hands on me," Donadio said.
Donadio, a former Transportation Security Administration program analyst, said that while sitting at his desk in May 2013, things escalated quickly when discussing an assignment with his manager.
"I looked down, looked back at my computer, and he grabbed me," Donadio says. "(He) whipped me back around, leaned over me, put his finger in my face, and told me he was sick and tired of me."
The new allegations of inappropriate physical contact between TSA employees at MCO come amid an ongoing Spectrum News 13 Watchdog Investigation into a bullying culture among TSA workers at the airport.
Donadio waited about six months to file a police report, because he thought his management group would take action. He also was hoping his union president at the time, Donald Thomas, could help.
Thomas, though, says former Federal Security Director Keith Jeffries was pulling the strings.
"Management is handling it... This is none of your business," said Thomas, the former local president of FSGE, about what he was told. "You manage the airport. This is really none of your concern, and that kind of message I got from management," he said.
When Donadio learned that nothing would be done to his manager, he says he fell on some real dark times.
"I became very ill. I mean, I was just watching my career end," Donadio said. "It was spiraling out of control, and I had no support. So I requested some time off for medical. I couldn’t sleep. The anxiety was keeping me up at night... depression," he said.
The new claims of physical contact come after Spectrum News 13 uncovered details of TSA worker Robert Henry's suicide note, which said in part, "Tell my managers I will be waiting for them in Hell."
Coworkers of Henry said he'd been bullied, sometimes being called "Lurch."
Donadio isn’tthe only one who claims they were assaulted at work.
Natalie Khawam is an attorney with the Whistleblower Law Firm based in Tampa. She represents several MCO TSA employees who say they have not only been bullied or retaliated against at work but have been victims of workplace violence.
"There’s one case where one of the TSO officers, one manager, head-butted her," Khawam said. "(There's) another one where one manager pulled their arms away when their arms were crossed. There have been instances of TSOs going into diabetic shock, and they were suspended."
Khawam says little is typically done to those who commit the offense.
"They may get a hand slap about it, they will have an opportunity to resign, or even worse, (they'll) move them around to different airports, which doesn’t fix the problem, but just moves the problem to other airports," Khawam said.
In the case of the woman who was head-butted, the State Attorney's Office in 2016 filed to press battery charges against the supervisor. But in 2017, under a new State Attorney, the case was dropped.
That supervisor confirmed to Spectrum News 13 on the phone that she was asked to resign, which she did. She denied head-butting the victim, but did admit to placing her hands on the woman's neck and shoulder after getting into a heated confrontation with her coworker.
"TSA leadership initiated an administrative inquiry more than a month ago due to ongoing management and personnel concerns raised by the TSA workforce," TSA said in a released statement asking for comment on this report. "TSA places a high priority on addressing workplace and personnel concerns when they are raised. Mr. Pete Garcia is serving as the Acting FSD on an interim basis pending conclusion of the administrative inquiry. TSA is subject to restrictions under privacy laws regarding what we can say while the administrative inquiry is ongoing and therefore cannot provide additional details."