Bergen County Librarian Was Fired For Being A Man, He Alleges In Suit

FAIR LAWN, NJ — A Fair Lawn resident has filed suit in Bergen County Superior Court saying he was fired from the town library because he's a man.

Alexander Cardillo said in the suit that he worked at the Marcus M. Pine Library since 2004, but was fired in 2023 after a campaign of harassment by the library director.

After he returned to the library last March as part of a settlement, he says, he was suddenly told his hours would be capped at six per week.

'Steady Shift'

The suit says that Cardillo worked at the library's reference desk, where he was able to put his Master's in Library Science and a New Jersey State Librarian Certification to good use.

"Unlike working the main circulation desk or restacking books and journals," the suit notes, "the Reference Desk requires a greater knowledge of the various resources available to library patrons so that they could complete their respective projects."

For many years, he worked a steady shift and received positive reviews, according to the suit.

But he said that starting in 2022, Library Director Adele Puccio, who had been hired in 2016, began discriminating against him by giving fewer hours, replacing him with female staffers who had fewer qualifications, and harassing him.

In 2023, he was reprimanded unfairly several times, he said.

Suspension

Cardillo claims that Director Pucci failed to give him his annual wage increases in 2022, and soon told him she was cutting his hours "in an effort to harass and/or have Mr. Cardillo resign."

Cardillo says some of his hours were given to a new female employee with no certification.

Then, in February 2023, Cardillo says, the library had to temporarily close for an elevator repair. He said that at a birthday party held in the building, he and other library employees began discussing whether they'd be paid during the closure.

When Puccio found out, she sent him a written reprimand, he said. However, he says in the suit, other employees were involved in the discussion and were not reprimanded.

Cardillo says that on Feb. 14, 2023, Puccio sent him an email that stated, "in substance and in part, that Mr. Cardillo [is] removed from the schedule at the Library until further notice."

Around five days later, Cardillo received a Preliminary Notice of Disciplinary Action, alleging that he had violated the Library’s Confidentiality Policies by utilizing the Library’s computer to contact an employee, he says.

Cardillo was then suspended and replaced by "a female library employee who was neither qualified, nor had the credentials, to be assigned to such a location," Cardillo says.

"Defendant Puccio and/or the Library Board continued on their quests to harass, degrade and humiliate Mr. Cardillo, a male employee, by presenting false claims against him," the suit says.

Cadillo says that at a disciplinary hearing on April 6, 2023, Puccio accused Cardillo of harassing another employee without any factual basis.

In September 2023, he was terminated retroactive to the date of his suspension, he says.

After Cardillo contested the firing and the case was transferred to the state's Office of Administrative Law, the library settled with him, he says.

He returned to his old pre-2022 work schedule in March 2024. But that situation changed quickly, he said.

"Despite having entered into an agreement with apparent good faith, Defendants Puccio and the Library Board immediately undermined Mr. Cardillo," the suit says — capping his hours at six per week.

"In or about December 2024, a female employee resigned. In her place, Defendant Puccio hired a female," the suit notes. "Defendant Puccio offered another new female employee the Sunday shift that previously belonged to Mr. Cardillo."

'Based On Cardillo's Gender'

The suit says that when various hours opened up, they were always offered to female employees and not Cardillo.

Cardillo says that on the staff of 30, only four are male. He says Puccio hired only one man since becoming library director, and the man is a fill-in if no one else is available.

"The wrongful termination, continuous retaliation and harassment are based upon Mr. Cardillo’s gender," the suit says. "But for Mr. Cardillo’s gender, he would not have been ostracized, discriminated and/or retaliated against in the workplace, in violation of the law. A reasonable male employee would view the actions of Defendants as discriminatory and gender based harassment, retaliation and discrimination."

The suit names Director Puccio as well as the library and the Borough of Fair Lawn.

Cardillo is asking for compensatory damages, punitive damages, and legal fees, the suit says.

A story in the Paterson Times in 2020 says that Cardillo sued the Paterson School District for wrongful termination. The story says that he was subjected to a "pattern of harassment, abuse and hostility" and was terminated in spring 2019.