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 MoreSince the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic approximately two years ago there has been a steep increase in the number of whistleblower lawsuits filed against healthcare employers. With the significant rise in litigation, it has become more important than ever for employers in this field to make sure they are properly navigating COVID-related issues and 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 MoreSome of the largest unions in the state of Texas recently renewed a push to get lawmakers to overhaul the employment insurance system in the state and to ensure workers’ compensation for employees who were exposed to the COVID-19 virus while on the job. According to these unions, state legislators need to take more concrete Read More
Read MoreA whistleblower claims he was wrongfully terminated from his position after repeatedly raising his concerns about COVID-19 protocols at Trojan Battery Co. in Santa Fe Springs. The company was the subject of an investigation in 2020 after a virus outbreak resulted in 61 total infections and the death of one employee. The whistleblower, John Martinez, Read More
Read MoreFormer employees of Bic Graphic recently filed a federal class action lawsuit against the company and its parent company, Scribe Opco Inc., for allegedly violating the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act. According to the lawsuit, Bic Graphic employees spent a significant amount of 2020 on furlough, and were led to believe employees would eventually Read More
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