A class action lawsuit against Kaiser Permanente has been filed by a former employee who says she was targeted and discriminated against because of her mental health disability and now wants the court to set things right.
The employee is a woman who began working for Kaiser Permanente as a customer service coordinator in Atlanta in 2010 and says she never had a problem doing her job. She was diagnosed with anxiety and depression in 2018 and a year later was forced to take a competency test, but was denied any accommodation of her disability, she claims. After failing the test twice, Kaiser Permanente fired her, unjustly, the woman says.
On Nov. 3, she filed a federal class action lawsuit against Kaiser Permanente Insurance Company in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia. She is accusing the company of violating the Americans with Disabilities Act by failing to accommodate her disability, discriminating against her because of her disability and requesting medical information from her about her disability.
She is seeking damages of at least $75,000 per violation.
The case was filed as a class action lawsuit, though the paperwork submitted by the plaintiff’s lawyers does not include any information about the potential Class of other plaintiffs.
“Pursuant to a company-wide pattern and practice, Kaiser Permanente singled out Plaintiff because of her actual, recorded, or perceived disability, and demanded that Plaintiff disclose her medical condition to it,” the class action lawsuit claims. The worker informed the company about her illness in the fall of 2018 and spring of 2019, she says.
“Once Kaiser Permanente learned of her diagnosis it singled out the Plaintiff to take what it termed as a ‘competency test’ for the job she already occupied” and was performing satisfactorily, the class action lawsuit claims.
The first test happened in March 2019, after the employee was denied a postponement “until she was mentally stable to sit for the test.” She was later told she failed the test.
Kaiser Permanente forced the plaintiff to take the same competency test again, in August, and again denied her request for a postponement until she was in mentally stable condition to sit for the assessment, she alleges. Again, she was told she failed.
She was fired from her job at Kaiser Permanente in November 2019 because she “no longer met the job requirements and was not successful passing the second attempt of the competency test,” the class action lawsuit says.
The now-terminated worker filed a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in April and the commission issued her a “right to sue” determination in August, according to her lawyers.
The plaintiff “has never had a work incident related to her anxiety and depression, and her conditions are controlled through medication and therapy,” her class action lawsuit insists.
Have you considered filing a class action lawsuit against Kaiser Permanente after being subjected to a competency test while working there? Tell us about it in the comment section below.
The lead plaintiff and the proposed Class Members are represented by Roderick T. Cooks and Lee D. Winston of Winston Cooks LLC.
The Kaiser Permanente Class Action Lawsuit is Case No. 1:20-cv-04484-WMR-CCB in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia.
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5 thoughts onFormer Employee Files Class Action Lawsuit Against Kaiser Permanente
I worked for Kaiser as a Home Health Nurse in Oregon and was cruelly targeted by Kaiser once Kaiser found out I was pregnant. I was written up and harassed weekly, eventually pushed out by the company for taking too many bathroom breaks and unable to keep up with the unreasonable productivity expectations towards the end of my pregnancy. They would monitor my movement through GPS on our company phone and would harass me for taking bathroom breaks every 2 hours in my third trimester in pregnancy. This continued after the birth of my child when I would pump my breast milk every 2 hours. The psychological impact this had on me as well as monetary loss was grossly impactful.
I was targeted and retaliated against fit speaking up against management and their treatment of me for filing a worker’s comp claim and asking for accommodations. I was harassed to the point of physical, mental, and emotional breakdown utilizing non-uniform documentation and blasphemy. I could no longer be the employee I was and was terminated for low productivity
I was force to retire after 20 years became ill and had to take time off the harassment began on top of it all I have now been diagnosed with schizo affective after all of my years of service and they have denied me my medical and disability insurance
hello i was forced to take an early retirement as kaiser refused to accommodate my dissability / medical leave.i worked there for 24 years with an excellent work record.
My name is Richard Uslander and I am having the same problem accept I am an austistic and learning disabled man. I have no problem being part of this Suit because thay deserve it I am in Maryland. Lots of problems at the East coast Kaiser.
I can help with the suit