By Steve Kardell | Published December 20, 2022 | Posted in Covid-19, Employee Rights, Wrongful Termination | Tagged Tags: covid-19, Racial discrimination, remote work |
A Chinese American engineer, who was fired for refusing to come into the office during the COVID-19 pandemic, has amended his ongoing lawsuit to include claims the former company allowed white employees to work remotely. Case background The plaintiff, a Chinese American engineer working at CGIT Systems Inc. in 2020, accused the company of firing Read More
Read MoreA judge awarded a former U.S. Forest Service firefighter $115,000 in back pay, siding with the firefighter in his whistleblower retaliation claim against the Forest Service. The firefighter, Pedro Rios, claimed the agency “blackballed” him for publicly speaking out against the agency’s loose COVID-19 safety protocols during the height of the pandemic.The decision from the Read More
Read MoreThe former chief of the Sacramento Fire Department, Gary Loesch, recently filed a $10 million wrongful termination suit against the city, claiming he was deliberately exposed to COVID-19 as a form of retaliation. Case background A former employee had filed a complaint against Loesch, which included several claims of harassment and discrimination based on age, Read More
Read MoreIn a September article in the Minneapolis Star Tribune, a whistleblower alleges executives of St. Therese of New Hope nursing home instructed staff to ignore protocols related to the COVID-19 pandemic. The whistleblower was Brooke Peoples, who previously worked as an administrator at the facility in New Hope, Minnesota. She claims the instructions came from Read More
Read MoreThe Biden administration recently issued guidance that workers with long-term, lingering symptoms of COVID-19 may be protected under federal disability laws. This guidance brings forth a new area of concern for employers: that they may become targets of litigation if they discriminate against or fail to accommodate a person with such lingering symptoms. About the Read More
Read MoreA former employee of Amazon claims she was fired from the company’s sorting center in Thornton, Colorado after repeatedly raising concerns about the COVID-19 risks in the facility. In response, she filed a whistleblower complaint with the state’s labor department that could lead to a lawsuit. Case background The employee, Linda Rodriguez, said her concerns Read More
Read MoreAs of April 6, the number of employment complaints related to the COVID-19 pandemic had surpassed 2,000 in courts around the United States. This is thanks to a ramping up of such lawsuits that occurred in the most recent months. While it took eight months to reach the 1,000 mark, it was less than five Read More
Read MoreA new complaint filed by the Office of Special counsel indicates inspection officials at the Food and Drug Administration downplayed major concerns regarding safety and hygiene at a Merck factory being used to produce the Johnson & Johnson COVID vaccine. According to a former safety officer with the FDA, inspectors downgraded the facility from a Read More
Read MoreWest Virginia recently became the latest state to pass COVID liability protection legislation. Republican Governor Jim Justice signed the bill that will afford greater protections to businesses, healthcare providers, universities and individuals from potential lawsuits relating to the virus. The bill is called the COVID-19 Jobs Protection Act, and is meant to reassure businesses that Read More
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