A former labor relations manager has sued the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission, its former chairman and three others, claiming he was fired for refusing to give preferential treatment to a toll collector accused of misconduct.

In a lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court here, Donald Kovac of Whitehall said he was terminated for failing to honor "an unwritten rule ... that [turnpike] union employees who had favored political connections would be afforded favorable treatment" in grievance proceedings.

He said he was asked last year to hear an appeal filed by a toll collector who was fired after a dispute with a motorist.

The collector, identified in the suit only as "O'Reilly," had assaulted a motorist, and the incident was captured on video, the lawsuit said.

Mr. Kovac alleged that Melvin Shelton, a turnpike manager, directed him to reinstate Mr. O'Reilly and that Mark Rowe, business agent of Teamsters Local 77, told him he would be fired if he did not.

When Mr. Kovac did not accede to those demands, he said, Mr. Rowe demanded his firing and Mr. Shelton contacted then-commission Chairman Mitchell Rubin, who ordered turnpike Chief Operating Officer George Hatalowich to fire Mr. Kovac.

On Nov. 20, Mr. Kovac said, he was driving a turnpike-owned car that had been assigned to him when he was pulled over by a state trooper and told he had been fired.

Turnpike spokesman Carl DeFebo said he could not comment on pending litigation. Attempts to reach Mr. Rowe were unsuccessful yesterday.

Mr. Kovac, a former civil service commissioner and employee relations director for Allegheny County, is seeking unspecified compensatory and punitive damages for alleged violations of his constitutional rights and the state's whistleblower law.

The suit names the commission, Mr. Rubin, Mr. Hatalowich, Mr. Shelton and Mr. Rowe as defendants.

Mr. Rubin was removed as commission chairman by Gov. Ed Rendell last month after he was linked to a $30,000-a-year "no show" job doled out by convicted former state Sen. Vincent Fumo.