Register of Wills John Sabatina is sued by five former employees for discrimination

Five former employees of Testamentary Officer sue the Philadelphia According to a new court filing, the department and its official have been charged with discrimination.

John Sabatina, the elected official who oversees the agency, fired 19 black employees who supported his opponent and replaced them with white employees, the lawsuit says. against the department and Sabatina, a Democrat who took office in January, was filed on September 6 in the District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.

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The five employees named in the lawsuit, four black and one Arab, all started working at the office between 2020 and 2023 and were laid off effective January 9. Since January, workers said they have not found jobs with better pay or benefits than at the city agency, which handles the execution of a will and provides support when a person dies without a legal document detailing the distribution of assets.

The Registry of Wills declined to comment and the plaintiffs' attorney did not respond to a request for comment.

Former Register of Wills Tracey Gordon, who took office in 2019, also faced a similar lawsuit when five former employees sued her after they were allegedly fired for not donating to her campaign. So far, the city has paid $125,000 in settlements to two former employees in those lawsuits, and Gordon still faces three more lawsuits, Axios reported.

Gordon narrowly lost the election in November and then ran unsuccessfully Democratic primary Campaign against U.S. Rep. Dwight Evans for his seat in April.

Last year, Sabatina campaigned on the goal of ending corruption in the will registry. He told the Committee of Seventy that he planned to “restore public confidence in the office after four years of corruption, poor hiring and firing practices, and terrible customer service to the citizens of Philadelphia.”