The Maryland Department of Labor is suing the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority on behalf of an employee who was allegedly fired for raising concerns about lead contamination in subway tunnels.
Valerie Steele, who worked in Rockville in Metro’s occupational safety office, was transferred to its office of emergency preparedness in early October 2023. Just 10 days later, an employee reported working in a dusty, potentially lead-contaminated room near a subway tunnel.
“The employee advised (Steele) that he worked in an ancillary room and was covered in dust for one hour,” the complaint states.
Steele sought to stop similar maintenance work until workers could get proper protective equipment and receive medical monitoring. Five days after that, she was fired by a superior who had been assigned to the job just a month earlier. The complaint states that at first, there was “no reason” for her firing, but then she was told it was for poor performance.
She later filed a complaint with Maryland Occupational Safety and Health, a division of the Department of Labor.
The Department of Labor sued in March in Baltimore City Circuit Court, demanding that she be reinstated and given back pay, which it estimated at more than $200,000 by the time a judge rules on her case. It also asked for an injunction preventing Metro from violating Maryland’s workplace safety law.
“The reasons given by WMATA for Ms. Steele’s termination were pretext for illegal discrimination,” the...
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