SHUTESBURY — A former bar manager and bartender at the Shutesbury Athletic Club, who lost a bid for a Select Board seat in Saturday’s town election, has been awarded nearly $93,000 in back pay and damages for emotional distress after a Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination investigator ruled in the case.
An April 18 decision released by Simone R. Liebman, the state commission’s hearing officer, found that Thomas Siefert is entitled to the financial compensation as a result of two complaints, the first filed Oct. 16, 2020, alleging sex and sexual orientation discrimination, and the second, filed May 24, 2021, alleging retaliation.
“In conclusion, I find that the SAC retaliated against Mr. Siefert when it terminated him as bar manager and bartender, changed the locks at SAC and denied him a key, removed his access to the SAC website and removed him from the BOD,” Liebman wrote in the 45-page decision.
Reached by phone Monday, Siefert said he would refrain from commenting publicly on the decision, understanding that an appeal by officials with the Shutesbury Athletic Club was imminent.
In a statement, though, Siefert expressed appreciation: “I am grateful to the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination for the work that they do. I am thankful for the support from my husband, family and friends.”
The club intends to challenge the decision in Franklin Superior Court, said President Mark Olszewski, but otherwise won’t comment on the case.
“We are appealing it, the decision, and the club continues to function as it has in the past, with no restrictions,” Olszewski said.
He added that the club would be unlikely to remain in business if it is required to pay the full amount, or even half that. The club, located at 282 Wendell Road, features regular dinners and line dancing, Friday night concerts and Taco Tuesdays.
“We are functioning as we had before,” Olszewski said, noting that there are also a number of family-friendly events staged in collaboration with the PTO, the Shutesbury Library and other community groups, such as pumpkin carving and hay rides, along with other days that bring out all ages, such as birthday parties, pig roasts, clam bakes and cruise night car shows.
The decision states that $7,934.64 in back pay damages are owed to Siefert, running from June 4, 2021 to July 1, 2022, and calculated as 56 weeks multiplied by the $141.69 per week in salary as its bartender and bar manager.
But the bigger penalty comes from having lost his position on the board of directors, which caused him much anxiety, made him feel “emotionally deflated” and caused concern that others would think he was “not a good person,” according to the text of the decision.
“Based on my observation of Mr. Siefert when testifying on this subject, it was apparent that his dismissal from the board affected him at the time of hearing,” Liebman wrote. “Mr. Siefert spent time talking with his husband and his friends to try to process his feelings about the collapse of his employment and board membership at SAC. Based on the evidence before me, I conclude that Mr. Siefert is entitled to an award of $85,000 in damages for the emotional distress he suffered as a direct and proximate cause of SAC’s retaliatory action.”
Siefert also claimed that he was issued a no trespass order because he had filed the MCAD complaint. That was dismissed, though, and the hearing officer found insufficient evidence to substantiate that Siefert’s status as a gay man prompted his termination.
Still, the hearing officer suggested that the club may not have a family-friendly atmosphere, noting the discovery that “female bartenders at the SAC engaged in sexualized dancing and sexually suggestive conduct and BOD members made some sexually-explicit comments and occasionally discussed their sex lives.” and that members and staff also “interacted in a raunchy way, which included rough language.”
The Shutesbury Athletic Club was founded in 1965, at the onset supporting softball, basketball, bowling, pool, Little League and Lassie League teams, though it is currently only supporting a pool team.
Those who helped found the club began sponsoring sports teams in the 1950s before the 2½ acres of land on Wendell Road was donated and its building was constructed. At its height, the club had more than 400 members, though it has also gone through some challenging times, including being closed for around a year in the late 1990s and again being shut down during the COVID pandemic.
While technically a membership club, the bar has typically been open to anyone who wants to patronize the establishment, not necessarily in the company of a member.
