Three former employees are accusing Grace Community Church (GCC) in Sun Valley, California, of wrongfully terminating them after they complained of asbestos exposure while working on a church-owned property.
Mauricio Calderon, Jose “Tony” Lara, and Chad Pritchett filed a lawsuit against the church that was pastored by the late John MacArthur for more than five decades, according to The Christian Post.
According to the complaint, the issue arose after the men began working on a property in nearby Arleta, California, where GCC had plans to develop an elementary school. The plaintiffs allege that while working on the property, they discovered what appeared to be asbestos in the flooring of the facility but that a superior assured them that the facility had been tested and was free of asbestos.
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The same superior allegedly later admitted to lying about the asbestos testing.
The men continued to work without protective equipment until a subcontractor alerted them to the presence of asbestos. Later tests confirms that asbestos was present at the site.
“GCC did not close down the site. Instead, the site remained open,” the lawsuit alleges. “And Plaintiffs had been bringing invisible, hazardous, potentially deadly chrysotile fibers—asbestos—from this future school site straight home to their families.”
The suit specifies that among the family members exposed to asbestos were “a newborn infant and immunocompromised wife.”
The plaintiffs allege that when they brought their concerns to church leadership, refusing to work on the facility until asbestos abatement had been completed, they were given a two-week window to voluntarily resign.
When they refused to resign, the plaintiffs allege, they were fired at the end of the two weeks.
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