A lawsuit brought against the city of Bend by two street division employees who alleged they faced retaliation for — among other things — complaining about co-workers playing pingpong on the clock was settled last week.

Craig Qual, a city employee since 2004, and Skip Stenkamp, an employee since 2001, settled their claims against the city for $7,500 each, according to City Attorney Mary Winters. Both men had originally asked for $150,000 to $499,999, according to papers filed in the suit.

Qual and Stenkamp described themselves as utility street workers, whose duties primarily involve sign, marking and striping work, according to the documents.

Qual’s suit alleged his difficulties with management began in April 2008 and April 2009, when he took 10 days medical leave on both occasions following the births of his children. Qual’s suit states he received many nonemergency calls while on leave from his immediate supervisor, Kevin Ramsey, prompting him to contact Ramsey’s supervisor, street division Manager Hardy Hanson.

Qual claimed that as a result of his raising the issue with Hanson, Ramsey subjected Qual to repeated shift changes, forced him to change a time sheet to accept overtime rather than compensatory time and transferred him to a stormwater crew, which prevented him from working overtime.

Stenkamp’s suit claimed Ramsey retaliated against him for speaking out on behalf of Qual regarding his issues with overtime and for raising concerns about harassment, safety and financial issues.

In court papers, Stenkamp said he was involuntarily assigned a new job with different duties and received two back-to-back negative annual employee evaluations after receiving positive evaluations in prior years.

He said he was removed from his position in the sign-making department after filing for workers’ compensation as a result of an on-the-job head injury and that supervisors threw out the contents of his employee locker while he was on leave due to the workers’ comp claim.

Both suits claimed that between September 2010 and summer 2012, Qual and Stenkamp repeatedly complained to management about employees playing pingpong during business hours.

Hanson said earlier last week that employees have played pingpong at the department headquarters on Simpson Avenue, but not while they were supposed to be working.

“It was at lunchtime and at the end of the day people would play on their own. We still have a table here, but nobody plays anymore,” he said. “At our Public Works week, we have a tournament and the money goes to charity.”

Winters, the city attorney, said in addition to the financial compensation that will be awarded to Qual and Stenkamp, the city agreed to make changes to their personnel files, though she said she was unclear about precisely what would be altered.

— Reporter: 541-383-0387, shammers@bendbulletin.com