YSU settles with former union head

Staff report

YOUNGSTOWN

Youngstown State University on Monday announced that it has settled a wrongful-termination suit with the former head of its classified employee union.

The university announced that Ivan Maldonado was awarded an amount of money equal to back pay he would have received had he not been fired in 2009, and also lost benefits from the time he was fired.

The amount of the settlement is almost $614,000. It was reached Dec. 16.

According to terms of the settlement, Maldonado resigned from the university effective Nov. 29 for the purposes of retirement. He has agreed not to return to work at YSU in the future.

The university said in a statement that it decided to enter into the settlement because it was the best way to avoid time and expense of future litigation.

Maldonado, former president of YSU’s Association of Classified Employees, was fired from his job as a payroll assistant in 2009 after he was accused of threatening another university employee.

He was acquitted of a menacing charge in municipal court, and also of charges of falsification and tampering with records charges in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court.

An arbitrator ruled in July that Maldonado be reinstated to his job.

The university noted that Maldonado is not being given anything extra but the back pay and benefits he would have received had he never been fired.