Uninsured Employer/Dead Employee: The Tragic (perhaps criminal) End of Quelino Ojeda Jimenez
Quelino Ojeda Jimenez died in a rural Mexican hospital on New Year’s Day. He was twenty-one years old. In August 2010, Quelino fell from a roof while working for a nonunion contractor near Midway Airport, and was rendered a quadriplegic.
You may remember the controversy a year ago when Advocate Christ Hospital, unwilling to absorb the costs of his further care, put him on a plane back to Mexico. Family and friends charge that if he’d stayed at Advocate, he would still be alive.
There’s been precious little attention, however, to Quelino’s employer, Imperial Roofing Company. The owner, Anthony Ritter, claimed no knowledge of his catastrophic accident, claiming the young man had been employed by an unnamed subcontractor. Neither Imperial Roofing nor the unnamed subcontractor had workers’ compensation insurance. As a result, Quelino Ojeda was used and discarded, and left to die.
There’s been a lot of clamor by politicians in this state about “workers comp fraud” – virtually all directed at blue-collar workers. Yet when employers like Imperial Roofing break the law, most get off scot-free. Under the law, Quelino’s employer should be charged with felony workers’ compensation fraud. Some would call it murder.
Let’s remember Quelino as we continue the fight to hold bosses accountable for the safety and basic dignity of their workers. Otherwise, this will become the new face of the construction industry in Chicago.
Leave a Comment
If you would like to make a comment, please fill out the form below.