(COLORADO SPRINGS) — According to several victims, the former CEO and senior employees at Encompass Health Rehabilitation Colorado Springs tried to silence women who came forward with sexual harassment complaints against one doctor.

The victims say a top doctor sexually harassed them for years, despite their complaints. They say this pattern of behavior was possible because the company’s former CEO and leaders, whose job it was to protect employees, reportedly attempted to suppress and threaten retaliation against those who spoke out. 

FOX21 has obtained phone recordings, interviewed victims, and reviewed the complaints filed by nine former and current female Encompass employees with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). The names of the women are being withheld to protect them from retaliation.

The employees describe a culture of silence and fear that enveloped them as they endured harassment by a former doctor at Encompass Health Colorado Springs for over a decade. They allege that former Encompass Health CEO Steve Schaefer and other senior employees who were in charge of employee wellbeing not only ignored their complaints, but actively sought to suppress them.

“It kind of started to sink in that how severe this is and how this isn’t just something I should continue blowing off,” said one former employee. “This is predatory behavior, and I need to speak up about this.”

Many of the women asserted that the former CEO instructed them to bring complaints about the doctor, also referred to in documents as the provider, directly to him, rather than follow the company’s sexual harassment policy and go to HR.

“He went on to say that, in the future, if I have any complaints about the provider, I should come to him directly because he’s been texting the provider and making sure that he’s behaving appropriately,” the former employee said. “To hear him say that he’s handling allegations of sexual assault and sexual harassment by texting the provider just made me question what they’re taking seriously.”

Another employee said her team leader had threatened her by claiming that they were on a “list” of people complaining about sexual harassment. The team leader suggested that Encompass could even invent false reasons to terminate them if they continued to report the doctor.

This employee decided to take her complaints to higher authorities and reported the conversation to the company’s Regional Human Resources Director. FOX21 obtained a recording of that Feb. 14 meeting.

In the recording, the employee tells the HR director: “My hands shake when I talk about it… She [the team leader] came into the office, shut the door, and told me that people are going to be fired and written up for corroboration, interrogation, and stealing company time. I’m feeling like I’m going to pass out in fear of like… I’ve not done anything wrong.” 

After the employee expressed her distress and fear about potential termination, the regional HR director called the situation an “awkward” interaction.

“During the time where you and [the team leader] had that really awkward conversation…I don’t know what all that was about…I wouldn’t put too much stock in the conversation about there being a list or being on a list. I’m not aware of the list. And I mean, I don’t know. They probably wouldn’t make me aware of a list anyway,” the regional HR director responded.

In that conversation, the regional HR director did say they are “committed to trying to create the best environment possible,” and would conduct an investigation, but that there would be “no promises on the outcome.”

A separate account revealed that the company’s head of HR called a female employee on her personal phone, instructing her not to encourage other women to file complaints against the doctor. This development was seen as particularly alarming, as HR is traditionally considered the avenue for employees to raise concerns about harassment.

“I had felt supported by this HR person and that she was listening to other females, if they had any complaints of sexual harassment, that she wanted to hear them,” said the former employee who received the call.

Josh Friedman, an attorney representing the nine women, said in his two decades of work as a litigator of sexual harassment cases, he’s, “never seen human resources have an employer telling an employee, ‘You may not speak to other potential victims and notify them that they have the right to go to human resources.’ Whatever her reasoning was, it’s just not okay.”

The women, in their accounts, maintain that these threats and intimidation tactics successfully silenced them. The fear of retribution and the belief that their voices would not make a difference left them in a state of dread and powerlessness.

“I just felt overwhelmed and scared, and a part of me felt like my job was at risk. So I just chose to stop talking about it completely… I chose to shut down at that point and not even speak about it to my close friends,” said the former employee who received the call from HR.

Rebecca Houlding, another attorney representing the nine women, highlighted the broader implications of this situation.

“When you shut people down like this, you’re licensing sexual harassment. You’re making it more possible,” said Houlding.

These allegations came to light through a series of blog posts starting in August by Friedman & Houlding LLP, the firm representing the nine women. On Tuesday, they released the third installment of their series that outlines the allegations of what happened at Encompass Health.

In response to the allegations, Encompass Health provided a similar statement that it had provided two weeks ago when FOX21 originally brought this story to light.

“Encompass Health does not tolerate discrimination, harassment, or retaliation in its workplace and takes all allegations of such actions very seriously… The Company is confident in its understanding of the facts and looks forward to presenting them in the appropriate legal forum.”

The company confirmed that the doctor in question had his permission to provide patient care at the hospital revoked.

Attorneys for the nine women are now awaiting the conclusion of the EEOC investigation and are planning to file a lawsuit against the company.