DETROIT — Longtime Red Wings Zamboni driver Al Sobotka has filed an age and disability discrimination lawsuit against Olympia Entertainment after his termination earlier this year.
According to the Tuesday filing in Wayne County Circuit Court, Sobotka admitted to urinating Feb. 2 into one of the arena's drains that leads into a sewer designed to handle ice runoff from Zamboni machines. That incident was reported to management, which prompted a series of meetings that led to his dismissal.
Sobotka has been the popular Zamboni driver at Little Caesars Arena, Joe Louis Arena and the Olympia, having worked with the Red Wings for the last 51 years before being terminated in February.
"Al Sobotka worked for the Ilitch organization 51 years; he started at the age of 17," said Deborah Gordon, a Bloomfield Hills-based civil rights lawyer, representing Sobotka. "He missed exactly one game to a false-positive COVID test. He was unceremoniously fired because he urinated into a drain behind the Zamboni machine (leading) from the Zamboni garage.
"Somebody (a fellow worker) was there and saw him and reported him. He (Sobotka) thought no one was in the building.
"He (Sobotka) was given no warning, no second chance."
The Red Wings did not immediately respond for comment.
Sobotka has been diagnosed with benign prostatic hypertrophy, said Gordon, which causes a frequent and uncontrollable need to urinate. Gordon said Sobotka had made Olympia officials aware of the condition.
"He has a prostate problem, which is in the complaint, and he has a problem with frequent need to urinate," Gordon said. "He made them aware of it and they still fired him."
Sobotka was called into a meeting with his supervisor and a human resources representative two days later, Feb. 4, after the original incident. Sobotka was terminated Feb. 17, after being first suspended.
"I have a hard time believing this was a terminable offense in anyone's world," Gordon said. "You could have simply have given him a warning, or told him not to do it again. This is needless and we believe there's more to it than this and they wanted him gone because of his age (67)."
Sobotka, said Gordon, is appreciative of the fans, coaches and players he daily came in contact with over the years.
"He wants to express his appreciation to the fans, coaches, and players, he loved everybody and he felt this was his family," Gordon said. "For him to be fired in this way, for this reason, after 51 years, was a just a major blow to him."
