A knowledge interpreter is suing Los Angeles County for incapacity discrimination, alleging she was subjected to disparate remedy as a result of she was solely given restricted skill to work at home as she handled abdomen most cancers and finally positioned on unpaid depart.
Uyen Duong’s Los Angeles Superior Court docket lawsuit alleges harassment, retaliation and failure to accommodate and have interaction within the interactive course of. She seeks unspecified damages.
A county consultant didn’t instantly reply to a request for touch upon the swimsuit introduced Wednesday.
Duong was employed as a analysis analyst 2 in June 2017 and was promoted two years later to an analyst 3 within the Environmental Well being Division, performing her job properly, the swimsuit states. Nevertheless, in 2021 she was harassed and subjected to retaliation as a consequence of a decline in her well being that left her dizzy and vomiting blood, which was recognized as being abdomen most cancers, in line with the swimsuit.
When the county started asking workers to start out returning to their workplaces 4 days per week in July 2021 after that they had been working from residence because of the coronavirus, administration declined to permit Duong to proceed working from residence from July and August of that 12 months to heal, telling her she must take unpaid depart, the swimsuit states.
Duong filed a grievance about her work situations with the county Fairness Oversight Panel, underwent abdomen surgical procedure and began seeing a psychiatrist, in line with her swimsuit, which additional states that her physician stated she may work full time by means of the top of 2021 if she stayed residence as a consequence of her well being and surgical procedure.
Nevertheless, regardless of three conferences along with her division, Duong was not given work-from-home lodging and her division director was not current for any of the periods, in line with the swimsuit, which additional states that the plaintiff subsequently complained to the California Civil Rights Dept. as a result of her division was allegedly discriminating and harassing her based mostly on her situation.
Duong was finally allowed to work at home two days weekly by means of June 2023, however she believes administration’s concession was probably not an lodging as a result of her division on the time was permitting all employees to telework two days per week because of the surge within the Omnicron variant, the swimsuit states.
Regardless of having a health care provider’s be aware that she wanted to work at home for an additional six months starting final August as a consequence of her worsening situation, her division didn’t accommodate her and as a substitute positioned her on unpaid medical depart, in line with the swimsuit.
Duong was “constructively discharged” final September, years earlier than she wished to retire, in line with the swimsuit, which additional states that she has suffered financially, skilled emotional misery and seen her popularity impaired.
