Discrimination Claims By Fired Workers In Limbo

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Public discussion of accusations of religious discrimination, harassment and retaliation by three fired state workers against their former boss was effectively silenced Monday with a legislative panel's creation of a subcommittee over personnel.

After nearly three hours behind closed doors, members of the Ohio Workers' Compensation Council voted unanimously to create a five-member subcommittee on personnel and promptly adjourned. The three dismissed employees -- attorneys Kim Finley and Shadya Yazback and executive assistant Sue Irwin -- left the room without having a chance to speak. The three worked for the council, which was created to look out for the security of Ohio's insurance fund for injured workers.

State Sen. Stephen Buehrer, who chairs the council, declined to elaborate on what the personnel committee's role would be, if any, in resolving the employees' allegations against their supervisor, Virginia McInerney.

Committee member Robert Kendis, a Cleveland workers' compensation attorney who proposed the idea, said the subcommittee would review administrative policies and personnel dealings over an unspecified time period. He said it "wasn't necessarily a solution" to the flap over the firings.

The three employees allege that McInerney, active in an evangelical megachurch northeast of Columbus and an occasional guest on "The 700 Club," led the staff regularly in prayer, provided them with copies of "God at Work" CDs to listen to, and encouraged one to read a book she wrote, titled "Single not Separate: How to Make the Church a Family."

In letters sent March 2 to council members, the three alleged they were wrongfully discharged and asked to change the terms of their terminations from firings to a settlement. McInerney has said all their allegations are false.

Buehrer said the council held the executive session because personnel matters and pending litigation are both confidential. He said McInerney will continue in her role as executive director.

"The director is a capable professional with the right skill set to carry on the duties of the office," he said.

In response to a question by Buehrer, legal counsel John Williams told the council that sharing details from the closed-door session with the public could cost those members who are attorneys their law licenses.

McInerney sat in on the first portion of the 13-member committee's executive session, presumably to provide a synopsis of the events that led to the firing of her staff last month. She spent the remainder of the closed-door meeting sitting alone in the Statehouse.

Before the executive session, council member Dan Dodd, chairman of the House Insurance Committee, announced he would hold hearings on the council's operations in the wake of the firings.

Dodd, a Hebron Democrat, said hearings on the council will begin March 24. He says the group has cost employers nearly $1 million and has completed just one bill analysis.

The council was created in 2007 in the wake of an investment scandal at the Ohio Bureau of Workers' Compensation.

It is not unusual for investigations to be launched into allegations of harassment by state employees against those they supervise. A high-profile sexual harassment case at the office of former Attorney General Marc Dann in 2008 resulted in an internal investigation of alleged wrongdoing that ended in the firings of several aides.

The Ohio Department of Health placed deputy health director John W. Francis on leave in 2008 as it investigated allegations of sexual harassment against female employees. The allegations were substantiated and he was fired.

This case may be treated differently because the threat of legal action accompanied harassment allegations.

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