Ex-Employee Accuses Medline Of Racial Discrimination, Retaliation

NORTHFIELD, IL — A former employee of Medline Industries says she was subjected to racial discrimination and terminated in retaliation for complaining about sexual harassment by her boss.

Ekemini Rowe began working at the Northfield-based medical supply company in February 2015, according to a lawsuit filed this week in federal court in Chicago.

Rowe alleges her immediate supervisor, a director in Medline's finance department, sexually assaulted her by kissing her by force after a December 2016 holiday party and continued to harass her throughout the next year.

The boss offered a promotion and other favors, and Rowe continued to reject his sexual advances, the suit said. He allegedly contacted Rowe over social media, making sexual comments and specific references to the assault, and at one point in the fall of 2017 went into her cubicle and destroyed her purse. On an unspecified date, that employee was terminated.

A more senior supervisor in the finance department also harassed Rowe, at one point calling her a "whore" while walking by her desk, according to the complaint filed Tuesday by her attorney, Sam Sedaei.

And in December 2017, Rowe heard another senior Medline official — the company's former senior vice president for finance — call her "stupid" and tell another employee "that's the one we call 'the whore,'" it said.

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Rowe began looking for a new job as the environment at Medline became "intolerable," according to the suit. She would eventually take a pay cut to leave.

But even after submitting her resignation, Rowe continued to face harassment, with a director continuing to call her a whore, the complaint alleges. It said the company's human resources manager for finance refused to review documents to substantiate her claims of harassment.

Rowe's complaint alleges one count of racial discrimination and one count of retaliation. It asks for compensatory and punitive damages, back pay and attorney fees.

"When white employees of [Medline] complained about sexual harassment by a white male and a former director of Receivable Services, they were not harassed or constructively discharged," it said. "When [Rowe], a black female, made complaints about white employees, the accused were not terminated in the same fashion as [her fired boss] was without an opportunity to improve."

It was not immediately clear if any of the people named in the suit are still employed by Medline, which has more than 26,000 employees and nearly $14 billion in annual sales, according to its website.

Online resumes indicate several of the Medline supervisors Rowe accuses appear to have departed the company shortly after the time period described in the lawsuit, which said at least two of Rowe's harassers never faced any discipline for their role.

Medline spokespeople have not responded to a request for comment regarding the suit.

Both sides were ordered to file a joint status report on the case by March 15.