Kevin McNeil has sued his former employer, Concrete Supply of Iowa. Besides claiming he was fired for pointing out the smoking violation, McNeil also says he suffered from racial discrimination, harassment and retaliation by his former employer.

The lawsuit claims that, 15 days after the state’s no-smoking law took effect, he confronted a co-worker smoking in the company break room. McNeil claims he told the co-worker smoking in the room was illegal and asked him to smoke outside. Then McNeil filed a complaint with the state health department, according to the Chicago Tribune.

The lawsuit claims the co-worker who was accused of smoking in the break room and a witness were interviewed. McNeil was fired three days later for allegedly “promoting violence in the workplace.”

McNeil also claims he was subjected to racial slurs and that the company did nothing after he complained several times. He cites one incident in which an employee — the same one accused of smoking in the break room — brought in a homemade toy monkey with a noose around its neck, and that he was told he should “get over it.”

The company denies all the charges.

McNeil’s attorney calls this an important public policy case that reminds employers that an employee who notes a co-worker’s illegal behavior shouldn’t be fired.

Why are employees reluctant to speak up about improprieties where they work? Retaliation is feared, as a municipal employee in Florida is claiming in a lawsuit.

Danilo Benedit, a procurement supervisor for the city of Coral Gables, wore a wire to help police investigate the city manager’s cover-up of questionable credit card charges.

Now he’s filed a lawsuit claiming the city violated the Florida whistle-blower laws that protect government employees who report illegal activities.

Benedit hasn’t been fired from his job, but he claims he’s been subjected to an increasingly hostile work environment, according to the Miami Herald.

His lawsuit lists a five-month delay in his performance evaluation and receiving his first negative one ever as retaliatory acts against him.

Benedit also claims he’s been ostracized by co-workers and has been unable to complete his job functions because they are keeping critical information from him.

The lawsuit alleges the city posted an ad for his job position.

City Commissioner Ralph Cabrera says Benedit’s job was downgraded from a director’s position to an officer position similar to what had been done in another department. He added that Benedit was allowed to apply for the new position.

Cover-up investigated

Last year, after City Manager David Brown’s credit card expenses were criticized in a local weekly paper, Brown asked Benedit to help backdate receipts that would show he reimbursed the city for two questionable charges months before he really did.

Brown was charged with a civil violation of public records laws. He resigned his city position under pressure.

Brown also asked Benedit to falsify documents related to a city project and to award a contract to a firm that wasn’t the lowest bidder.

Benedit claims his problems at work come from fellow employees who are still loyal to Brown.

Deborah Smith was manager of the restaurant at the Hilton Minneapolis. In her lawsuit, Smith alleges that one night she walked into the banquet room to find the hotel’s upper management having an orgy.

She claims that, after complaining about the orgy, “a campaign of harassment and retaliation ensued against her,” according to the Pioneer Press.

The suit states that, as the night manager of SkyWater restaurant, Smith was praised for her performance, received raises and trained other employees.

But on the night she allegedly found the orgy, the suit claims the hotel’s beverage manager told her “she would be fired, and he would make sure of it.”

Smith says she complained to HR but didn’t get any help.

Smith is accusing the hotel of sex discrimination and sexual harassment. She also claims she was retaliated against because she complained.

The suit doesn’t name a dollar figure, but says Smith lost in excess of $50,000 and is seeking punitive damages as well.

Was Mary Curlee a hero or a backstabbing co-worker?

Curlee was an administrative worker at Kootenai County Fire and Rescue (KCFR) in Idaho. She thought two of her co-workers wasted too much time on personal conversations and brought the matter to various supervisors.

Curlee claims two supervisors told her to document her co-workers’ behavior that she believed to be wasteful.

For several months, Curlee hand wrote a detailed, minute-by-minute log of what the two co-workers did.

One day, while filling in for Curlee, one of the co-workers found her log and also showed it to the third co-worker.

Curlee often referred to her two co-workers as “Buffy” and “Muffy” in the log. Both women thought the nicknames were derogatory and insulting, and spoke to the Fire Chief about the log.

When the chief discussed the situation with Curlee, she said she would never be able to have a good working relationship with the other two women and that she wouldn’t apologize to them. Curlee was fired.

Is she a protected whistleblower?

Curlee sued KCFR, alleging she was wrongfully terminated in violation of the Idaho Protection of Public Employees Act, commonly referred to as the whistleblower act, for documenting a waste of public funds.

KCFR denied the allegations and moved to have the case thrown out.

The stated purpose of the whistleblower act is to “protect the integrity of government by providing a legal cause of action for public employees who experience adverse action from their employer as a result of reporting waste and violations of a law, rule or regulation.”

Given that, the Idaho Supreme Court ruled that there are genuine questions of whether Curlee was fired for conduct protected under the whistleblower law. It refused to throw out the case. The high court said a jury should now determine whether her employer discharged her in retaliation for her documentation of waste.

Should someone who kept minute-by-minute logs of her co-workers’ actions be protected by a whistleblower statute? Let us know what you think in the Comments Box below.

Police in Plainville, a town in Great Britain, have arrested a woman on charges that she tried to retaliate against her former boss by having electricity cut off to his home.

After the woman was fired from her job at an insurance-sales agency, she allegedly used a co-worker’s computer password the next day to make a request that the utility company shut off the power to her boss’ home.

The utility called the boss to verify the request and discovered the call was a fake, according to The Bristol Press.

The woman faces charges of breach of peace and using a computer to commit a crime.