One of Doug Peterson’s cases is featured in today’s Omaha World Herald:
SUIT CITES BIZARRE REASONING FOR FIRING
By Juan Perez Jr.
Omaha World Herald
June 30, 2010A former employee of Omaha’s largest homebuilder has filed a lawsuit alleging that the company’s chief executive officer forced a religious agenda on workers and fired her because her unborn child carried “negative energy.”
The lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court by Jammie D. Harms of Lincoln, who worked as administrative assistant to John J. Smith, chief executive officer of HearthStone Homes.
Harms alleged that Smith and other company managers “actively attempted to create a spiritual, religious work environment based on concepts incorporating universal energy, concepts of reincarnation, and intuitive spiritualism.”
Smith told employees that past lives can explain current behaviors, and they can be understood through positive and negative force fields, according to the lawsuit.
Harms, who alleges religious and pregnancy discrimination, is seeking back pay, reinstatement and compensatory and punitive damages.
An official with HearthStone Homes denied any wrongdoing and said Harms was fired, along with many other workers, because of the economic downturn that continues to plague the U.S. housing market.
Harms, hired in April 2008, believed she was required to follow these religious beliefs in the workplace and had to attend mandatory training sessions that reinforced the beliefs, said her attorney, Doug Peterson.
In April 2009, about one month after Harms told her boss she was pregnant, the lawsuit alleges that the following incidents occurred:
• Harms was called into a meeting led by Smith and other company managers. They told Harms that she had a troubling “disconnect” with her fetus.
• Harms was asked to take part in a conference call with an Arizona-based psychic to determine “whether or not negative energy was being created with the pregnant plaintiff because she had a male boss versus a female boss.”
• Smith consulted with a chiropractor and “self-described energy worker” who told Smith he shared a former life with Harms’ unborn child and suggested that he “partner” with the baby. Smith declined, saying the baby’s energy was hostile toward him.
Harms, who was paid $45,100 annually, was fired in June 2009.
Neil Smith, a HearthStone vice president who said he is not related to the company’s chief executive, declined to comment on the lawsuit’s allegations.
He said that Harms was let go because of the recession and that she declined the company’s offer of a severance package.
“This would appear to be just her next response as she tries to bring some sort of conclusion to her moving beyond HearthStone,” he said.
Neil Smith acknowledged that the company follows certain practices believed to help employees develop their intuition.
In addition to what he described as coaching sessions that help develop employee potential, he said the company uses massage therapy and creates quiet “meditative-type spaces, where people can take that time to get clear … so they can function at a higher level.”
Though the company’s practices may seem unorthodox, Neil Smith said, they should not be demonized. They even may have contributed to some of the company’s success despite bleak economic conditions, he said.
“The notion of ‘spiritualism’ takes it to more of an esoteric place that I’m not sure is productive,” he said. “We look at the body from a holistic perspective, and there are tons of different resources out there and we’re just open to exploring them.”
The company’s alleged emphasis on spiritualism has been argued before in the federal courts.
The 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a jury verdict that favored a former HearthStone employee who sued the company for religious discrimination in 2003.
The employee, a Protestant, had alleged that the company fired him because he resisted attending “Mind Body Energy” sessions designed to cleanse his body of negative energy.
Neil Smith, the company vice president, said HearthStone did not want to force its views on any of its employees.
“I’ve not had anybody personally come to me and tell me that it’s been pushed on them,” he said. “We have a pretty open environment here. If someone feels like they had been pushed upon, it’s not while they’ve been working here.”
HearthStone has built homes in Omaha since 1970.
Builder Magazine recently ranked the company No. 28 on its annual Builder 100 list, up from No. 30 in 2008 and No. 64 in 2007, placing the company among the nation’s largest home construction companies.
If you or a loved one have suffered employment discrimination, please call the experienced Nebraska employment attorneys of the Keating, O’Gara Law Firm at 888/234-0621.
