A Portland city employee who says he was subjected to boorish, fraternity-style hazing -- including being struck on the bare chest with hard candy shot from an air compressor -- is suing the city for $250,000.

In a lawsuit filed Friday, Adam Rawlins claims he endured two months of horrendous pranks by fellow Portland Bureau of Transportation co-workers from August 2016 to December 2016. The lawsuit claims that the transportation department's maintenance division long had a history of allowing employees to haze new hires who were still in their probationary periods of employment.

City Attorney Tracy Reeve declined to comment, citing the pending litigation.

Among the “extreme hazing” alleged in Rawlin’s suit, he claims:

Co-workers held Rawlins against his will in a locked cage that was kept in a dark city shed with his legs, torso and arms duct-taped and zip-tied. His captors gave him no indication of when he’d be released. (See photo at the top of this story).

Co-workers frequently made Rawlins pull off his shirt “so he could feel it,” then used the air compressor to shoot him with metal screws, wooden strips, popcorn kernels and candy such as Good & Plenty and Hot Tamales. Rawlins suffered bruises, blood blisters and welts.

Colleagues threw him in the back of a locked city trailer and left him there while the trailer was in transit.

Colleagues required him to sit in the back of one of the city’s trucks while one of them “punched and contorted the nipples on his chest.”

He was repeatedly pushed, body-slammed and called profanity-laden names. His safety vest also was ripped off his body.

The lawsuit states that the hazing left Rawlins humiliated, depressed, sore and sleep-deprived from the stress. But he didn’t complain to higher-ups because he was worried about losing his job as a utility worker, said Rawlins’ Portland attorney Benjamin Rosenthal, who was contacted by The Oregonian/OregonLive.

“He’s a young kid, he’s in his 20s, he just wanted to keep working there,” Rosenthal said. “So he was afraid to complain.”

The suit claims that various employees knew of the hazing and participated in it. A supervisor also knew of the ongoing hazing but “failed to take any form of immediate appropriate and corrective action to stop it,” the suit states.

At some point, higher-level managers learned of the allegations, and an investigation ensued. In May 2017, Willamette Week wrote about a nine-page personnel report -- finding that some hazing had occurred and painting a picture of a workplace culture that rewarded loyalty and discouraged reporting inappropriate behavior, according to the newspaper.

A consultant later hired by the city wrote a 38-page report that found the transportation bureau's maintenance division was home to a "don't snitch" culture.

Rosenthal, Rawlins’ attorney, said he has yet to receive the report despite asking the city for a copy. The Oregonian/OregonLive asked a Transportation spokesman Dylan Rivera to provide a copy, but he couldn't immediately provide one.

Russell Wilkinson -- who was another probationary employee who took part in an initial city investigation into the hazing -- complained to the Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries that he was fired as retaliation. The city ultimately gave him his job back, plus $5,000 as compensation.

Meanwhile, Rawlins still works for the city.

In addition to the city, Rawlins’ suit lists “lead worker” Jerry Munson and co-worker James Pope as defendants. It’s unclear if they still employed by the city. The city’s human resources department wouldn’t immediately confirm their employment status Friday.

The lawsuit was filed in Multnomah County Circuit Court. Read the lawsuit here.

-- Aimee Green