By Christian Schiavone
The Patriot Ledger
BOSTON — A Weymouth firefighter will receive two days’ pay he lost while he was suspended last year for filing an injury report because of razor burn.
The state Civil Service Commission reversed Fire Chief Robert Leary’s decision to suspend Firefighter Kenneth Morehouse for filing what the chief alleged was a false injury report.
The commission ordered the fire department to reimburse Morehouse for lost pay and benefits.
Leary suspended Morehouse in October 2009 after he filed an injury report stating that he suffered razor burn when Leary ordered him to shave his mustache. The chief said Morehouse’s mustache was too long to comply with department’s standards for facial hair.
Morehouse appealed the suspension and the commission held a closed-door hearing in February. The decision was released last week.
The commission ruled that Leary had no proof that the injury report was false.
“It is the practice in Weymouth to complete and submit a workplace injury report for any injury, regardless of whether it appears to be trivial,” commission Chairman Christopher Bowman wrote in the decision. “Although Chief Leary may have been skeptical about (Morehouse’s) motive for submitting the injury report, he has not shown that it was a false report.”
Leary declined to comment on the decision but said Morehouse will be reimbursed out of this year’s fire department salary budget.
Morehouse, a seven-year veteran of the department, could not be reached for comment. Paul Hammond, president of the Weymouth firefighters union, did not respond to phone messages seeking comment.
According to the decision, Morehouse trimmed his mustache after Leary told him it was too long on Oct. 7, 2009. Two days later, the chief informed him that the mustache was still too long and ordered him to trim it further immediately.
Morehouse, who did not have his electric razor with him, found a razor in a disused locker room and shaved twice more before the chief was satisfied, Bowman wrote.
Morehouse then filed an injury report stating that his skin was irritated. Leary refused to sign it and forward it to the retirement board as required by the firefighters union’s contract.
“Chief Leary determined that the report was false because the chief could see no way that shaving could result in a legitimate injury,” Bowman wrote.
At a hearing with Hammond and Morehouse, Leary stuck by his decision to suspend Morehouse, who then appealed to the commission.
Copyright 2010 The Patriot Ledger