A Black girl is suing town of Chicago and a co-worker in its transportation division who she stated hurled racial slurs and gender insults at her and assaulted her, together with whereas she was pregnant.
In her lawsuit filed on Might 13 in U.S. District Courtroom in Illinois and obtained by Atlanta Black Star, Danyiell Montgomery says she was content material in her job as a concrete employee for the Chicago DOT, the place she’d labored largely amongst males for seven years, till April 2023 when she transferred to a brand new division.
She knowledgeable her new supervisors that she was pregnant, and would want break day for a surgical process associated to her being pregnant. She had the process on Might 1, 2023, and was off for someday.
Upon her return, Montgomery requested gentle obligation work for a brief interval as she recovered from her surgical procedure and as an lodging for her being pregnant.
That request subjected her to ridicule, harassment and discriminatory remedy from her male co-workers, she claims.
Raul Ramirez, her supervisor, requested her why she was working there since she was pregnant, she says.
Different co-workers made the next feedback to her in entrance of administration, in response to her grievance:
“We don’t want no lazy girl right here. Get her out of right here.”
“Black girls and their f—king attitudes.”
“Why the f—okay is she nonetheless right here?”
“We don’t want any disable[d] mom f—kers working right here and never contributing to the work web site.”
Then her supervisor Ruben Ochoa informed her he didn’t need her doing any extra concrete work “due to her situation” and demanded that she discover one other project.
Montgomery contends her physician didn’t prohibit her from doing concrete work altogether, solely whereas she recovered from her surgical process.
On Might 15, 2023, as she walked to her automotive throughout a gaggle lunch break, she says Michael Bailey a co-worker, adopted her, then proceeded to bang on her automotive window and requested, “What the f—okay are you doing? You simply had a break. Get out of that automotive and grade some filth.”
Bailey continued harassing her, in view of different co-workers and supervisors, allegedly telling her, “Don’t you have got a husband or one thing? I don’t need you right here. Black girls and their f—king attitudes. All you Black motherf—kers and your attitudes.”
He then allegedly “confirmed his gun to her in a threatening method” and stated, “That’s why I preserve my gun on me at work. I’ve to work round all these ni—ers arising and considering they’re privileged. I’m from Bridgeport and we’re docs and attorneys. I do know judges, cops and detectives, so nothing goes to occur to me.”
Montgomery says she feared for her security and felt excessive misery and psychological anguish over Bailey’s conduct and reported it to a neighborhood regulation enforcement company.
“I’d stroll out of my home crying with complications each day,” she informed CBS Chicago. My chest was tightened. On the time I feel I used to be 11 weeks pregnant.”
On Might 16, 2023 Montgomery started working at a brand new job web site, the place her duties included choosing up stakes, sweeping up particles, transferring barricades and inserting warning tape round newly poured cement areas. She says she requested her new supervisor Mike Devito if she may proceed with the sunshine obligation work she’d been assigned since early Might.
She additionally informed one other supervisor, Chris Davis, concerning the incident involving Bailey brandishing his gun at her whereas on work property, and that she wished to submit a proper report back to Chicago DOT.
Davis allegedly handed her a clean sheet of pocket book paper, as a substitute of the official kind used to report such complaints.
Regardless of this impropriety, Montgomery says she crammed the sheet out and gave it to Miram Velez, a labor relations specialist at Chicago DOT, who offered her with the suitable kind to make a grievance. Montgomery did so, emphasizing the gun incident and Bailey’s harassment and threats.
Based on her grievance, the division failed to research or take any motion to guard her security or to handle the hostile work surroundings. She continued to be required to work in crews that included Bailey, who saved making harassing and disparaging remarks to her concerning her race, gender and being pregnant.
The continual harassment brought on her misery, took a toll on her well being and threatened the protection of her being pregnant, she claims, forcing her to take a go away of absence. She remained off work from Might 28, 2023, by means of Nov. 22, 2023, throughout which era she gave start to a wholesome child.
When she returned to work, she was assigned to a brand new crew that included Bailey. On her first day again, as she pulled as much as the job web site, she says she heard Bailey inform Devito on a speakerphone, “Deliver that Black bi—h right here. She has no authority to request a switch.”
Since that day the work surroundings has remained hostile for Montgomery, who continues working at Chicago DOT, the lawsuit says. Her supervisors and the division are conscious of the “extreme and pervasive harassment” she has confronted, however have didn’t intervene.
Her lawsuit accuses town of Chicago and Bailey with disparate remedy, harassment and hostile work surroundings due to her race, shade, intercourse and being pregnant, in violation of federal civil rights regulation and the Individuals With Disabilities Act.
It additionally alleges that town of Chicago negligently supervised Bailey regardless of realizing of his unfitness for his place within the division and his historical past of aggressive and harassing habits towards Montgomery, together with threatening her along with his gun.
The town and Bailey violated the Illinois Whistleblower Act and federal civil rights regulation, the lawsuit says, by retaliating in opposition to her when she complained about harassment from co-workers.
The retaliation occurred once they denied her gentle obligation request; brought on her to go on a go away of absence after subjecting her to a hostile working surroundings that threatened to trigger a miscarriage; pressured her to work with out pay for six months; and “pressured her to proceed working below her abuser.”
Montgomery seeks a jury trial to find out compensation for misplaced earnings and advantages, and compensatory damages for emotional misery, psychological anguish, bodily hurt and humiliation, and properly as punitive damages to punish the defendants for his or her “willfully illegal actions.”
“Some change must occur, some totally different insurance policies must occur, as a result of nobody ought to endure what I went by means of,” Montgomery informed ABC7 Chicago. “You come to work to work, to not undergo issues.”
On Wednesday CDOT stated in a press release: “Whereas we can not touch upon pending litigation, the Chicago Division of Transportation takes any claims of discrimination and harassment critically.”
The Chicago Division of Transportation has 21 days, or till June 3, to file a authorized response.
