In March 2020, as COVID-19 became a global pandemic, an employee of a Staten Island community health center asked permission to allow a regularly scheduled meeting to be held by teleconference – and then changed the format of the meeting to teleconference – rather than meeting in-person in a windowless conference room. When the health center’s CEO insisted they hold the meeting in person, the employee changed the meeting format back to in-person but did not attend the meeting given their concerns about being exposed to the virus there. Two days later, the center suspended the employee for refusing to attend the meeting and for unspecified “insubordination,” and prohibited them from access to all worksites. A few weeks later, the clinic terminated the employee in April 2020 without further explanation. The former employee filed a whistleblower complaint with the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration. In June 2021, the department filed suit against Community Health Center of Richmond, Inc. and CEO Henry Thompson, alleging they violated the anti-retaliation provisions of the Occupational Safety and Health Act by suspending and ultimately terminating the employee for reporting a hazardous work condition, potential exposure to COVID-19 at an in-person staff meeting.
