A Michigan man says he faced racist and anti-LGBTQ+ discrimination and was later fired after he reported unsanitary conditions in two Detroit hospitals where he was contracted to work.
According to the Detroit Metro Times, Just Right Law, a Michigan law firm specializing in workplace discrimination, filed a lawsuit last week on behalf of Jarrell Atkins against his former employer, North Carolina-based Compass Group and Crothall Healthcare. In his suit, Atkins, who is Black and gay, alleges retaliation, hostile work environment, wrongful termination, and violations of Michigan’s Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act.
The Detroit Regional LGBT Chamber of Commerce is spearheading what could be a decade-long effort.
Last year, Atkins filed a complaint to the Michigan Occupational Safety and Health Administration (MIOSHA) reporting “unsafe, unsanitary, and dangerous conditions” at Detroit’s Harper-Hutzel Hospital and Children’s Hospital of Michigan. Compass Group and Crothall Healthcare were contracted to provide cleaning services for the hospitals’ for-profit parent company, Tenet Healthcare.
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Atkins alleges a “shockingly outrageous” lack of cleaning supplies at the two hospitals, claiming this was due to Tenet’s “extreme” cost-cutting measures. In his MIOSHA complaint, he claimed that doctors at the hospitals were delivering babies with unclean surgical equipment and that hospital workers used equipment “contaminated by raw sewage and feces in surgical operating rooms.” Atkins’s suit alleges that Compass and Crothall fabricated records to avoid penalties.
Atkins, who was fired in March, also claims that upper management at Compass and Crothall used racial and homophobic slurs around him, ignoring his complaints about the offensive language.
As the Detroit Metro Times notes, Atkins is the third former Compass Group and Crothall Healthcare employee to sue the company in recent years alleging they were fired for raising concerns about Tenet’s hospitals.
“This lawsuit is just part of a sharp blade that is being used to eradicate the cancerous culture of profits over safety fostered by Compass and Crothall,” Muneeb M. Ahmad, an attorney with Just Right Law, told the outlet. “This lawsuit is a beacon of hope to other employees who may be afraid to speak up and is meant to give a voice against this retaliatory and discriminatory behavior.”
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