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Lawmaker investigating firings of workers who claim religious harassment
By Aaron Marshall, The Plain Dealer
March 04, 2010, 6:26PM

COLUMBUS, Ohio - The Ohio House Insurance Committee chairman has begun
investigating the firings of a trio of state employees who say they were
fired for objecting to their boss's attempts to force her Christian
beliefs on them.

In a Thursday letter, Rep. Dan Dodd, a Hebron Democrat, wrote that the
Feb. 16 firings by Virginia McInerney, director of the little-known
Workers' Compensation Council, were "very troubling."

"I have started gathering information on this matter and plan to utilize
all available options to investigate this matter fully," Dodd wrote to
Sen. Steven Buehrer, a Delta Republican who chairs the legislative board
that oversees the council. Dodd, who also serves on the board, also
urged the GOP chairman to formally convene the council to look into the
firings.

Dodd's investigation will focus on allegations from the employees --
executive assistant Stephanie Irwin and staff attorneys Kim Finley and
Shadya Yazback -- that McInerney fired them after they objected to her
repeated attempts to bring religion into the state office. The three
were McInerney's entire staff.

**The women complained that McInerney declared to the staff that she was
sent by God to her job, inquired about their religious beliefs, called
them in to pray aloud, cited scripture in her reprimands and said Satan
was to blame for obstacles the staff encountered in their jobs.**

They accused her of wrongful discharge, religious discrimination and
harassment, retaliation and age discrimination.

McInerney, 52, on Thursday disputed the employees' claims. "I certainly
deny the wrongdoing they are alleging," she said.

However, she declined to discuss the circumstances that led to the
firings because the trio may bring a future lawsuit. "It's not advisable
for me to go into details about the personnel matters that led up to
it," she said.

McInerney did say the women told her on Feb. 10 that they couldn't work
for her anymore, but asked for terms in a separation agreement that she
couldn't grant under state law. Those included eight weeks severance pay
and a confidentiality pact that McInerney said would have violated
Ohio's open records law.

McInerney said her counter offer was rejected by the women, leaving her
no choice but to fire them on Feb. 16.

Finley on Thursday wouldn't discuss the terms sought by the staffers but
said McInerney wasn't interested in trying to reach a settlement.
"Instead of trying to negotiate in good faith, she fired us," she said.

Dodd's letter also questions whether McInerney had any "undue influence"
on the legislative analyses produced by her staff, noting that one staff
member attributed her firing to her inability to recognize McInerney's
"divine gift for editing."

McInerney denied ever "authorizing or looking for anyone to modify a
document based on partisan lines."

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