His co-workers allegedly caused the same problems — but only he was fired
Ecolab is facing a race discrimination lawsuit after a former production worker alleges he was fired over safety violations he didn't cause.
Jamaal Watts worked as a Production Utility Person at the company's Joliet, Illinois facility from August 2022 until his termination on January 3, 2025. According to a lawsuit filed April 4 in the US District Court for the Northern District of Illinois (Watts v. Ecolab, Inc., No. 1:26-cv-03760), Ecolab ended his employment after three safety incidents — each of which, Watts contends, was caused or worsened by the company's own operational failures rather than his conduct.
The first dates back to May 2023, when a product-loading incident caused more than $100,000 in damages to an elevator. Watts was issued a written warning. But according to the filing, Ecolab officials admitted they had disabled the safety curtains designed to prevent exactly that kind of accident. Watts says he was never informed. The warning was later reduced to a verbal one through the union grievance process.
In March 2024, a chemical spill released 6,800 kilograms of chemicals over approximately seven hours. Watts was suspended. He alleges he was never advised to run the relevant machinery on manual mode only, and that the carelessness and recklessness of other employees caused the spill. He further states that had he been in the area at the time, the chemical fumes — in a space with little or no ventilation — could have seriously harmed or killed him.
The incident that triggered his termination came on November 21, 2024. Watts says he was sent a pallet carrying three empty drums and one full drum — none labeled — and he was not told they were improperly loaded. According to the filing, a white co-worker, Matt Beasley, told Watts he had warned another employee not to send the pallet down, but the employee did so anyway. Watts alone was disciplined. Beasley and the other employee, both white, received no punishment or write-ups.
The filing also notes that Beasley once caused a derailment for which he was never written up and has since been promoted.
Beyond the individual incidents, Watts alleges he witnessed Caucasian employees go unreported after spilling product on multiple occasions. He also says he was subjected to hate and discriminatory speech from white co-workers throughout his employment, including on an employee's Facebook page.
Watts filed a charge with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in August 2025 and received his right-to-sue notice in January 2026.
For HR professionals, the case underscores a recurring risk: when safety-related discipline is applied unevenly — and the pattern tracks along racial lines — employers open themselves up to claims that the enforcement was never really about safety at all. It is the kind of fact pattern that can turn a routine termination into a federal lawsuit.
No final determination has been made in the case.
