Post by Logan on Mar 21, 2016 6:30:57 GMT -6
Rutland Regional Medical Center supervisors for weeks ignored a noose hung in a black man’s workspace, a former nurse’s assistant at the hospital claims in a lawsuit that alleges racial harassment, retaliation and wrongful termination by his past employer. Roger Speid worked at RRMC from 2010 until November 2015. One supervisor repeatedly joked that “if (Speid) went hunting in the woods in Vermont, he would be mistaken for a bear or a buck and shot and that no one would care,” claims Speid’s complaint, filed in Rutland civil court Friday. “Vermont is a state that prides itself on embracing diversity, and welcoming people from all walks of life. And what happened here challenges those notions,” Speid’s lawyer, Manchester attorney Patrick Bernal, said Friday.
Asked for comment Friday, the hospital provided the following statement from Brian Kerns, vice president of RRMC human resources: “Rutland Regional has no comment on this case at this time. We are an equal-opportunity employer and we maintain strict policies prohibiting unlawful discrimination in the workplace. We are committed to providing an inclusive and welcoming environment for all members of our staff, patients, contractors and volunteers without regard to race, gender, age or any other protected trait.” Bernal said Speid came to Vermont about 13 years ago from Jamaica to make a better life for himself and lives in Rutland. Now a United States citizen, Speid is pursuing a nursing degree at Castleton University. “He’s a gracious person, he’s a caring person, this is a family man. He’s a husband and a father to two young kids,” the attorney said. “A lot of people might wonder if something like this can happen to Roger, it can certainly happen to them too.” Speid received consistently “glowing reviews and near-unanimous praise” in work evaluations, his lawsuit claims, but was fired after two white, female employees complained to a supervisor after a dispute that he had acted in a threatening manner.
The lawsuit claims the hospital’s own investigation did not appear to conclude the complaint was substantiated.
According to the suit, the dispute between Speid and his two coworkers coincided with a noose being anonymously hung in the hospital’s telemetry room, where Speid and other employees supervised the data from patients’ electronic monitors. Speid asked coworkers about the noose, which appeared sometime in September 2015, and after weeks of working near it, sent a picture of it to his new supervisor, Jessica Ollis, asking her to investigate the matter.
Read more: www.timesargus.com/article/20160319/NEWS03/160319571
Asked for comment Friday, the hospital provided the following statement from Brian Kerns, vice president of RRMC human resources: “Rutland Regional has no comment on this case at this time. We are an equal-opportunity employer and we maintain strict policies prohibiting unlawful discrimination in the workplace. We are committed to providing an inclusive and welcoming environment for all members of our staff, patients, contractors and volunteers without regard to race, gender, age or any other protected trait.” Bernal said Speid came to Vermont about 13 years ago from Jamaica to make a better life for himself and lives in Rutland. Now a United States citizen, Speid is pursuing a nursing degree at Castleton University. “He’s a gracious person, he’s a caring person, this is a family man. He’s a husband and a father to two young kids,” the attorney said. “A lot of people might wonder if something like this can happen to Roger, it can certainly happen to them too.” Speid received consistently “glowing reviews and near-unanimous praise” in work evaluations, his lawsuit claims, but was fired after two white, female employees complained to a supervisor after a dispute that he had acted in a threatening manner.
The lawsuit claims the hospital’s own investigation did not appear to conclude the complaint was substantiated.
According to the suit, the dispute between Speid and his two coworkers coincided with a noose being anonymously hung in the hospital’s telemetry room, where Speid and other employees supervised the data from patients’ electronic monitors. Speid asked coworkers about the noose, which appeared sometime in September 2015, and after weeks of working near it, sent a picture of it to his new supervisor, Jessica Ollis, asking her to investigate the matter.
Read more: www.timesargus.com/article/20160319/NEWS03/160319571