COLONIE — A Rensselaer County man is suing his former employer for allegedly firing him rather than accommodating his request to not be required to work alone with women.
In a federal lawsuit filed Oct. 14 in the Northern District of New York, Paul Ostapa alleges the Colonie branch of Trane Technologies did not follow through on his request for a religious accommodation and ultimately fired him from his HVAC technician job.
According to Ostapa’s lawsuit, the trouble began when the company hired a female technician in the spring of 2022. A Ukrainian immigrant and Southern Baptist, Ostapa asked his manager to not assign him to work alone with her due to his religious beliefs. While the manager initially agreed, Ostapa said at one point he was left alone with the woman when another technician left a commercial job site; he was reported to human resources when he later told a dispatcher he could not work with the female technician due to the religious accommodation. Ostapa was fired in October 2022 for insubordination, the lawsuit said…