Compulsion or coercion to refuse appointment or promotion

Any appointing authority or appointing officer, both as defined in chapter thirty-one, who, by himself or by some other person acting on his behalf, compels, or induces by the use of threats or other form of coercion, any person on an eligible list, as defined in chapter thirty-one, to refuse an appointment or promotion by such authority or officer to any position in the classified civil service shall be punished by a fine of not less than fifty nor more than two hundred dollars or by imprisonment in a jail or house of correction for not more than two months, or by both such fine and imprisonment.