Lawsuit Alleged GOP Senate Candidate and CEO Joe O’Dea Discriminated Against Workers
“Johnson claimed she was told that the company ‘need(ed) to get rid of these old sick people’”
GOP Senate candidate Joe O’Dea’s treatment of workers at his business Concrete Express is being scrutinized as he calls himself “The Boss” and touts his business in campaign ads.
A lawsuit, that has not been previously reported, from former Concrete Express employee Barbara Johnson alleges that O’Dea discriminated against workers based on age and disability. According to the lawsuit, O’Dea “asked the General Superintendent if the ‘old guys were a liability’ and then became determined to “make [elderly workers] disappear.”
O’Dea then allegedly targeted Johnson after she was diagnosed with cancer and terminated her employment. Johnson claimed O’Dea went further and blocked her from receiving unemployment benefits.
O’Dea claims that he’ll defend workers, however this disturbing report from Colorado Newsline raises serious questions about his true record and sends a clear message to voters that he won’t be a voice for working people.
Republican U.S. Senate candidate Joe O’Dea’s construction company last year settled a lawsuit brought by a former employee who alleged a pattern of age and disability discrimination, federal court records show.
Barbara Johnson of Loveland, who worked as a human resources manager for O’Dea’s Concrete Express Inc. for five years beginning in 2011, sued the company in U.S. District Court of Colorado in 2019.
Johnson alleged that she had her bonuses reduced and faced a hostile work environment following a cancer diagnosis in 2014. She further accused O’Dea and other CEI executives of dissuading employees from filing workers’ compensation claims and terminating older employees, a pattern she said she was pressured into facilitating in her role as HR manager prior to being fired in December 2015.
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O’Dea, a first-time candidate, has made his private-sector experience a centerpiece of his pitch to Colorado voters ahead of the June 28 Republican primary, in which he faces far-right state Rep. Ron Hanks, and a potential general-election matchup against incumbent Democratic U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet in November. “He’s not a politician — people call him ‘The Boss,’” boasts one O’Dea campaign ad.
In her lawsuit, Johnson alleged that when she raised the issue of potentially illegal terminations of older workers to CEI leadership, O’Dea not only ignored her concerns but said the firings served to bring down the company’s insurance premiums.
“O’Dea asked the General Superintendent if the ‘old guys were a liability.’ The General Superintendent replied, ‘Yes,’” Johnson’s lawsuit alleged. “O’Dea told the General Superintendent to take care of it and ‘make it disappear.’ Johnson told O’Dea that she did not want to participate in the illegal activities but O’Dea made Johnson process the terminations.”
Read more in Colorado Newsline.