Black chef at KU hospital endured ‘blatant discrimination’ and was fired: lawsuit
A former executive chef who was fired from the dining facility at the University of Kansas hospital in Kansas City, Kansas, said he experienced racial discrimination and retaliation at work.
James Shirley, who was put in charge of managing day-to-day kitchen operations for the University of Kansas Hospital Authority, filed a lawsuit against UKHA and Aramark, a food, facilities and uniform services company, claiming his direct manager treated him differently from the non-black employees.
The suit, initially filed in Wyandotte County District Court in February, was moved to the U.S. District Court for Kansas on March 18.
Shirley moved from Chicago to Kansas City in September 2018 to take the position at the hospital, which is named the University of Kansas Health System, at W. 39th Avenue and Rainbow Boulevard.
Under Shirley’s leadership, the dining facility passed food safety inspections that had previously failed under non-African American employees who were not fired for the failed marks, the lawsuit says.
But Shirley’s manager treated him differently, he alleged, by photographing the food storage areas Shirley was in charge of almost daily, telling Shirley not to use “big words” when speaking to his staff and limiting him to the kitchen, saying he didn’t want to see Shirley anywhere else in the building, according to the lawsuit.
The manager also said Shirley couldn’t bring food to employee meetings when others “routinely noshed,” according to the suit. He also disciplined Shirley for being late for a meeting because of another meeting.
On Jan. 10, 2019, Shirley reported his manager to the university, saying he felt “targeted and bullied,” court records show.
A few weeks later, after enduring what the lawsuit describes as “blatant discrimination,” Shirley was fired and replaced by a white chef from Chicago. UKHA in court records said Shirley was not replaced, but rather his position was eliminated.
Shirley is asking that the university compensate him, in part, for his lost wages and court fees, alleging his manager discriminated against him because of his race and in turn created a hostile work environment for the new employee before firing him for voicing his concerns.
UKHA denied the allegations of racial discrimination, alleging Shirley often left the kitchen unsupervised for long periods of time to socialize with people in other hospital departments and was late or missing from several meetings.
Aramark in court records claimed that Shirley’s Jan. 10 report did not mention racial discrimination.
“(Shirley) expressing his displeasure with his job, blaming prior conditions at the account for his inability to perform as required, contending he was being held accountable for problems that predated his arrival, and relaying that UKHA was singling him out and nitpicking his performance,” according to court filings.
The university also claimed Shirley didn’t improve his management of the cleanliness of his kitchen, expired products and unlabeled products after he was asked to.
In a counterclaim, the UKHA alleged that after his job was terminated, Shirley forwarded more than 50 emails, some of which included confidential information and trade secrets belonging to UKHA, to his personal email. He has since used this information at his new job, UKHA wrote in court records. They filed a cease and desist letter asking that he delete the emails immediately.
Shirley’s attorney and a spokesperson for UKHA did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday morning.
The Star’s Katie Bernard contributed to this report.
This story was originally published April 14, 2020 at 12:24 PM.
