Grace Community Church has been accused of wrongfully firing three maintenance employees who complained about being exposed to asbestos while working at a church-owned property. The Southern California congregation was fined over $1,100 by the state for workplace safety violations.
Mauricio Calderon, Jose “Tony” Lara and Chad Pritchett submitted a complaint on Friday with a California Superior Court in Los Angeles County. A copy of the lawsuit was provided to The Christian Post by a source who was familiar with the situation and the plaintiffs.
According to the complaint, GCC, led by the late author and Pastor John MacArthur, had purchased a 1.8-acre property in Arleta, California, with the intention of converting the space into an elementary school. Calderon, Lara and Pritchett worked at the space.
In January, the plaintiffs say they discovered flooring at the property that appeared to contain asbestos. According to the lawsuit, when they brought this to the attention of their superior, he assured them that testing had been performed and the flooring was free of asbestos. The next day, their supervisor said he had lied; he had never had the place tested for asbestos, the lawsuit reads. They also had brought their concerns to other church leaders.
The plaintiffs and others proceeded to work on the property without any protective equipment that would be used if asbestos were present, until a subcontractor alerted them to the presence of asbestos in the flooring.
“In the days that followed, GCC never provided Plaintiffs with results of asbestos testing. GCC took no action to remediate the site,” alleges the complaint. “GCC did not close down the site. Instead, the site remained open.”
On Feb. 13, Calderon received results from a sample he himself had sent to a lab, which confirmed that there was asbestos at the building site, the filing states.
“And Plaintiffs had been bringing invisible, hazardous, potentially deadly chrysotile fibers — asbestos — from this future school site straight home to their families,” the lawsuit adds.
When the three employees refused to work on the home until the asbestos was abated, the lawsuit says the church accused them of “spreading falsehoods about asbestos and stirring up drama.”
“GCC gave them two weeks to voluntarily resign, threatening their reputations within the Church and the impact that would have on their kids,” the complaint reads. “Plaintiffs did not resign, and so after two weeks, GCC fired Plaintiffs in retaliation for bringing to light its concealment of the dangerous asbestos GCC had exposed them to.”
Appeals to various pastors and elders in the church failed to reverse the dismissal.
The complaint accuses GCC of whistleblower retaliation and wrongful termination in violation of public policy, and requests a trial by jury to address their grievances.
The property became the subject of an inspection from the California Division of Occupational Safety and Health Administration (Cal/OSHA) after a confidential complaint was filed.
A spokesperson for Cal/OSHA informed CP on Tuesday that the case was closed on Aug. 15, saying there was “one general violation with a civil penalty of $1,125 issued to this employer for a Title 8, Section 1529 Asbestos violation.”
The Christian Post has reached out to Grace Community Church regarding this lawsuit. A representative replied on Friday that the church has “no comment” on the lawsuit and is likely unaware of the complaint.
In a statement emailed to CP, Lara said he was upset with the alleged “refusal to take responsibility” on the part of GCC, “even after they kept me there working in a dangerous environment after they were warned.”
“This church is supposed to be the light of the world, and for them to trample on us, our wives, our children, is just a horrible witness,” stated Lara.
Pritchett said that “to be treated like this was absolutely awful” and even “way worse than the secular world,” as “every contractor out there knows how bad asbestos is.”
“They wanted to rush this job to put a bunch of little kids in there for school, and if we hadn’t spoken up, if OSHA hadn’t shut the place down, I bet they’d be in there right now, breathing in God only knows what,” Pritchett said.
Calderon said in his statement that he had moved his family to Los Angeles to be involved at GCC, not only working for the church but also hosting Bible study classes.
“And then when this sinful behavior toward us happened, no one wanted to do anything,” he claimed. “I brought it to elders privately, some of them were sympathetic, but at the end of the day, none of them stepped up to do the right thing; they just went along with all of it.”
