Possible Workplace Retaliation

Michigan

Last week my husband reported 3 of his supervisors (Jake, Dean, and Roger) to his other supervisor(Thomas)for forcing employees to go off standard. Thomas escalated the situation to the site director and senior manager.

2 days later, Jake(operations manager) and Dean(senior operations manager) reported that my husband smelled like alcohol. My husband asked if there were any other reasons; behavior issues, slurring words, driving equipment weirdly. Dean told him no, it was just the smell. He was then forced to go to the nurses office and do an alcohol and drug test. The alcohol test came back inconclusive so they had to call someone offsite to do a breathalizer. He had to sit for 3 hours in a room with Jake( one of the men who accused him) while they waited for someone to come do the breathalizer. No one else was allowed in. I was on the phone with my husband off and on during this time.

At first he was denied food, water and to use the restroom until about an hour in. While in there, I could hear the OM berating him telling him "you need to take accountability for your actions. Your actions are why you're in here right now". My husband told him he just wanted to sit in silence and not talk to him about it. Jake continued to berate him and seemed like he was trying to egg my husband on to becoming combative. My husband asked Jake why it was not reported 3 hours earlier when he and Jake had a long conversation. Jake said he didn't smell it then. He smelled it later. Which happens to be after he talked to Dean.

After 3 hours the 3rd party showed up and did the breathalyzer. He blew 0.000. We went to HR today to discuss how we felt this was retaliation. Hr dismissed us saying we were putting things together to fit our narrative the way we want it to. They said the leadership was within their rights to do what they did.

Hr also informed us that Dean reported both smell and behavior issues. We later learned that they can't test based on smell alone. So he either lied to my husband or lied to Hr when he learned there needed to be more than just smell to go on. We asked for a copy of the full report/investigation and was told there wasn't one. That Hr was never involved. I asked Hr why they didn't have someone sit in the room with my husband and Jake. She said they could not sit in with them because they had to remain neutral. So no one besides the 3 of us know what was said in there. And it is our word against a manager.

We have nothing in writing from the SOM regarding why the tests were done. All we have is his results, a recording of our conversation with hr today, and documentation that he reported those leaders on tuesday.

Is there anything we can do? We're afraid of more retaliation. I also work there and am afraid it's going to affect me as well as they are also my leadership. Hr says they are going to investigate the retaliation claims but we do not trust them anymore. We have been here for 5+ years and can't afford to leave.

Any advice welcome.