MBTA employee alleges general manager Phil Eng pulling her hair was part of yearslong pattern of inappropriate behavior

The MBTA employee whose hair was pulled by general manager Phil Eng alleged that the moment was just one notable incident in a pattern of inappropriate behavior that stretched over years, according to a complaint now dismissed by the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination.

Gabrielle Mondestin accuses Eng in the filing of allegedly struggling to see her “as someone with experience and authority” and unfairly questioning her medical accommodations after she started as chief communications officer in 2023. It also breaks down the day of the hair-pulling in detail — a moment Mondestin calls “intrusive” and “difficult for me to understand.”

She asserted that her treatment at the T caused her “significant emotional distress” and “physical harm” as one of a few Black women in agency leadership.

Mondestin was required to withdraw outstanding complaints against the agency as a condition of the nearly $500,000 settlement agreement reached in August.

MCAD formally dismissed the complaint on Wednesday. She submitted her resignation, which takes effect Friday, Sept. 18.

Mondestin filed the complaint in June after news broke of the hair-pulling and the T publicly dismissed “any claims of harassment, discrimination or retaliatory behavior” related to the incident as “completely without merit.”

She also alleges that the T never formally investigated her complaints internally and that she hired a lawyer in summer 2025, about a year before the hair-pulling incident became public.

Both Mondestin and the T declined to comment and referred instead to a prior joint statement.

Eng, who is also the state’s interim transportation secretary, has not admitted to any wrongdoing related to the incident, though he has apologized publicly.

“I regret my actions, have learned from this experience and appreciate Ms. Mondestin’s focus on assuring the MBTA learns from it as well,” Eng said in the August joint statement.

Mondestin’s attorney, Ellen Zucker, called the T’s apologetic stance “extraordinary” on Friday.

“It’s actually quite rare to have a workplace respond as the MBTA has by recommitting to creating an environment where concerns can be addressed, and respect is expected,” Zucker said. “My client, who was courageous by stepping forward, should be commended for helping the organization grow.”

Eng has garnered unprecedented goodwill with riders and state leaders alike for eliminating T slow zones and kickstarting long-overdue maintenance work. And that success may be due in small part to Mondestin, who oversaw the agency’s communications strategy after a bout of especially bad service.

She came to the T with a decade of communications experience. Mondestin previously worked in Boston Public Schools, for former Boston mayor Martin J. Walsh, and on US Senator Elizabeth Warren’s 2020 presidential campaign.

The MCAD complaint reveals one side of the story about the interactions between Mondestin and T leadership.

“Growing up, I learned that seemingly small acts involving race, appearance, and personal dignity can carry meanings that extend far beyond the moment in which they occur,” Mondestin wrote. “That history informed how I understood and experienced Mr. Eng’s comments and actions and why they affected me so deeply.”

She alleges that after she started the job, Eng deferred to her “white male” counterpart. Shortly thereafter, she said Eng was “frustrated that he was obliged to honor” her medical accommodations, including her use of remote work.

“It was awkward to justify myself repeatedly,” Mondestin wrote.

Matters escalated, she said, in a one-on-one meeting with Eng in November 2024. There, Mondestin alleges that Eng said her hair was “probably a wig” or a “perm” hours before he pulled it.

That evening, at an executive dinner at Night Shift Brewing at Lovejoy Wharf, Mondestin said she made a comment — something like “I was late because my wig had blown off” — to indicate to Eng she was “bothered” by his earlier remarks. She said Eng then discussed “unusual subjects for a work-related gathering,” including adult-only vacations. He brought up his own hair.

Before leaving, Mondestin said she hugged Eng’s wife. She alleges that Eng then motioned for a hug, moved his hand to the back of her head, and “took a full-handed grip of my hair before pulling it twice with force.”

“I had given Mr. Eng no reason to think he could put his hands on me,” Mondestin wrote. “Having the man who controlled my job touch me and pull my hair was not any kind of joke.”

Mondestin said she confronted Eng the next business day about the hair-pulling and prior jokes he made about her medical condition.

Eng said his conduct the evening prior was a “joke that went too far” and apologized, according to her complaint.

Mondestin said she worried about approval of her medical accommodations after the 2024 incident and saw a “significant change” in her relationship with Eng, her direct supervisor, and other colleagues upon her return.

Following an October 2025 directive, for example, Mondestin alleges she was seated away from other T executives in order to continue note-taking as her job required and her accommodations allowed.

Inquiries about the hair-pulling started to filter into the T on June 12, 2026, though Mondestin said in the complaint she had nothing to do with the release of information to the press.

But Mondestin alleges that the T did not “have the courtesy” to inform her of the public statements it released that month, describing claims of harassment or discrimination by Eng as “completely without merit,” or of an email sent to 8,000 T employees about the hair-pulling incident.

On June 25, Mondestin alleges she heard from the T’s chief workforce officer and human resources, who raised “untrue factual assertions” concerning the agency’s responses to the press inquiries.

The next day, Mondestin filed her complaint with MCAD.