Michigan Health Care Provider to Pay $41K in Race Discrimination Lawsuit

Mid-Michigan Home Health & Hospice, L.L.C., a private in-home health care provider to clients throughout central Michigan, will pay $41,137 and provide other relief to settle a race discrimination and retaliation lawsuit filed by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the federal agency announced today.

According to the EEOC’s lawsuit, Mid-Michigan hired a black certified nurse assistant (CNA) in April 2023. A month after she was hired, Mid-Michigan hired a white CNA and assigned her more home visits than the black CNA. When the black CNA asked why, she was told the white employee could go places she could not, as Grand Blanc, Michigan residents were “old-time” and “did not care for black people.”

Although the black CNA lived closer to Grand Blanc than white employees, she was sent there only 5 times in two months. During the same period, three white employees were sent to Grand Blanc over 135 times. The black CNA was terminated within 48 hours of complaining about three Grand Blanc assignments being taken from her schedule and given to a white employee, the EEOC said.

This alleged conduct violates Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits racial discrimination and retaliation for complaining about it. The EEOC filed suit (EEOC v. Mid-Michigan Home Health & Hospice L.L.C., Case No. 26-cv-10632) in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan after first attempting to reach a pre-litigation settlement through its administrative conciliation process.

The five-year consent decree settling the suit provides $41,137 to the terminated employee. In addition to the monetary relief, Mid-Michigan will provide annual training on race discrimination to all employees and submit annual reports on race discrimination complaints and locations where each home health aide was assigned.

Source: EEOC

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