More than three year ago, Detroit Red Wings said it fired Zamboni driver Al Sobotka after he was caught urinating in a drain at work. Sobotka, who had the job for 50 seasons, insist he was fired due to age discrimination.
Now, his age discrimination lawsuit against Olympia Entertainment is underway in Wayne County Circuit court, reports Tresa Baldas of the Detroit Free Press. He was fired in 2022 at age 68.
Sobotka alleges that the company thought he was too old for the job and used the peeing incident as an excuse to give him the boot.
He also alleges that company engaged in a cover-up by having an executive who knew nothing about him fire him, just so they could wall off another executive who allegedly called him "old" just weeks before the incident, and then replaced him with a 37-year-old underling after he was fired, Baldas writes in the Freep.
His salary when fired was $81,000.
