Lawsuit: Duke Regional Hospital employee claims he was fired for reporting manager's racist remarks

An employee has filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court against Duke University Health System alleging he was fired for reporting his manager's racist remarks.

The lawsuit, dated May 5, alleges several incidents dating from Sept. 2020 to Jan. 2021, when Matthew Freetage, an operations manager for environmental services at Duke Regional Hospital, was terminated.

The lawsuit states that during Freetage’s first meeting with his manager, he was asked whether he had a problem supervising “Blacks.” When Freetage responded he didn't, his manager "instructed Mr. Freetage to start writing up 'those people' in order to 'keep them in line.'"

According to the document, on Sept. 18, 2020, Freetage was in a meeting when he overheard his manager's instructions to "clean house" in his department, specifically discussing his intent to fire Black workers who he felt were "lazy."

When Freetage brought up diversity training, another person in the meeting "laughed at Mr. Freetage’s question and responded, 'Yeah that’s all bull****. We don’t actually do that around here. It’s all for show.'"

Freetage reported the incident to Duke's Human Resources department on Sept. 28, 2020.

On Dec. 21, 2020, Freetage reported a Black coworker was fired because of “severe mistreatment, discrimination and harassment from the management." He also reported his manager had told him to write up “Blacks” to “keep them in line.”

According to the document, the human resources department told Freetage his concerns were a priority, but the manager and others were not disciplined after the Sept. 28, 2020, report. Instead, the manager "began repeatedly and unfairly criticizing Mr. Freetage’s performance, including on issues that were not Mr. Freetage’s fault."

The manager made false reports in Freetage's 120-day performance review before firing him in January, the lawsuit states.

Katie Galbraith, president of Duke Regional Hospital, issued this statement in response:

“While we can’t comment on active litigation, we thoroughly investigate allegations of discrimination and take appropriate action when we identify violations of our policies and core values. We have zero tolerance for retaliation against anyone who reports such allegations.”

Freetage said, as a result of his termination, he suffered economic losses, pain and suffering. He was protected by Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 in reporting his colleagues, he states.