AUBURN – A state investigator is backing claims that an Auburn-Lewiston YMCA worker was fired because she asked for help to cope with a disability.

Only days after requesting unpaid leave or permission to work from home to deal with a chronic stomach problem, a YMCA supervisor sacked Renee Carrier, according to the investigator’s report, filed with the Maine Human Rights Commission.

Carrier, who lives in Yarmouth, had worked for the YMCA for four months.

“There are reasonable grounds to find that (the YMCA) terminated (Carrier’s) employment in retaliation for requesting a reasonable accommodation for her disability,” wrote investigator Gail Flibbert in her report, dated Feb. 5.

A hearing with the five-member commission is scheduled for March 5.

Meanwhile, the Auburn-Lewiston YMCA insists that the firing was just.

“My staff and I stand behind the decision to terminate,” said Jim Lawler, the local executive director.

Lawler declined to talk about specifics of the case, since the commission has yet to act.

“There has been no decision,” Lawler said.

The Sun Journal was unsuccessful in its attempts to reach Carrier for comment.

Commission documents portray a young woman who was trying for months to manage a painful and long-undiagnosed problem.

Records showed that Carrier first sought a doctor in April 2004, before she was hired at the YMCA. She began working there in February 2005 and completed her probation three months later.

Carrier’s symptoms worsened in August and September 2005, when she logged several visits to emergency rooms and missed days of work.

Lawler told investigators that he was unaware of a “so-called disability.” He also recalled receiving several complaints about Carrier’s work during that period.

One day after a visit with a doctor, Lawler fired Carrier in a phone call. The accompanying letter cited “job performance dissatisfaction.”

“It is clear from evidence that until (Carrier) needed time off due to her disability, her job performance was considered satisfactory and her job was not in jeopardy,” investigator Flibbert wrote in her conclusions.