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November 10th, 2006
A contractor who was asked to carry out illegal asbestos work at Queens Elementary School and then blew the whistle on his boss has spoken out about the concerns and fears that he had for the safety of his job after he reported the illegal works that had been carried out.
Richard Cante stated that he refused to replace a broken asbestos tile on a classroom floor after being asked to do so by his boss. He stated: "At that class we were in particular, not to touch the tiles in any way, because if you lifted the tiles the fibers went in the air. They went on you, and as you walked through the building, you carried them through the building and you carried them home with you."
Cante said that his boss, Robert Baker, who was not even licensed to carry out asbestos work then went ahead and changed the tile himself. Cante reported the matter but said that authorities did not take things any further and ignored calls that he made to follow the matter up.
He went on to say that he was told that his job would be on the line when he filed a complaint against his boss with unions, and that it was only the fact that his wife is disabled and that he needed the benefits that probably saved his job. "After I brought up the issues about the pension and my wife, that she is disabled, they probably thought, 'well, we'll demote him and then we'll find something else to fire him over later on.'"
