Care home manager told Black nurse she should ‘be used to’ racial slurs, feds say
A care home facility is facing a federal lawsuit after a manager told a Black nurse she should “be used to” targeted racial slurs from patients because she is “from the South,” according to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
When Black nurses and nurse assistants complained about ongoing racial harassment at Elderwood at Burlington in Vermont, supervisors and managers said the older patients can “say what they want — including the use of racial slurs,” a complaint filed Sept. 6 states.
Now the EEOC is suing the care home accused of allowing its workers to endure the constant racial abuse by white patients as those in charge watched and did nothing to address the complaints, according to a news release.
In particular, a male patient physically assaulted Black workers on several occasions, followed them around the facility while hurling racist comments and would tell them to “go back to Africa,” the EEOC’s complaint states.
“This harassment was especially grotesque, and should have been addressed quickly but was allowed to continue,” Timothy Riera, the EEOC’s director of its New York district office, said in a statement. “An employer cannot ignore egregious racial harassment simply because the harassers are long-term care facility residents.”
A spokesman for the care home, Charles Hayes, told McClatchy News in a statement that the facility is aware of the EEOC lawsuit and is unable to comment on the ongoing litigation.
Hayes added, “We will vigorously defend our efforts to protect our staff from racial harassment.”
The lawsuit was filed after the EEOC tried reaching a pre-litigation settlement with Elderwood at Burlington, which is run by 98 Starr Road Operating Co., LLC, according to the news release.
On the facility’s website, it is described as “a leading provider of care for seniors across the Northeast region.”
Beginning in at least 2020, the care home let Black employees work in a hostile environment involving racial harassment from white female patients and one white male patient, according to the lawsuit.
“Elderwood’s managers and supervisors personally observed the (the workers) being subjected to unwelcome race-based comments and conduct, including but not limited to Elderwood’ s Director of Nursing, various Nurse Supervisors, and various Unit Managers,” the complaint states.
Unwelcome conduct from the male patient included how he punched one worker, smacked another, and used a walker to hit a third employee, according to the complaint. Additionally, he threatened another worker while placing a finger on her face.
One nurse would report the harassment through the facility’s employee hotline while others would record the harassment in resident care notes reviewed by managers, according to the complaint.
Since the facility took no action to address its employees’ complaints of racial harassment, it violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the EEOC says.
The lawsuit orders Elderwood at Burlington to make the affected workers “whole” by “providing compensation for past and future pecuniary losses … including emotional pain, suffering, inconvenience, and humiliation, in amounts to be determined at trial.”
It also seeks to stop similar harassment from taking place at the facility in the future, according to the release.
Meanwhile, Hayes told McClatchy News that “all reports of inappropriate resident behavior are investigated and addressed” and that the facility “does not tolerate harassment of any kind, and prides itself on promoting a culture of diversity and inclusion.”
However, EEOC regional attorney Jeffrey Burstein said in a statement that there was no “effective response” taken by Elderwood at Burlington.
Burlington, Vermont, is about 220 miles northwest of Boston.
This story was originally published September 7, 2022 at 8:59 AM with the headline "Care home manager told Black nurse she should ‘be used to’ racial slurs, feds say."
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