Gender/Disability Discrimination & A Number Of Other Employment Law Violations

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ckooiman

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For the past 4 years, I have been employed as a Treatment Supervisor at a treatment center for at risk youth. Although I had multiple other duties, a large part of my responsibility was verbal de-escalation of escalated youth as well as physical restraint of youth who are in the process of posing a physical threat to themselves or others.

On 2/25/08, I became injured during the course of my shift. Through completing my daily job tasks, I dislocated and fractured my left shoulder. Due to my injury, I was placed on workers compensation on 2/25/08, and as of this date I remain on workers compensation. Through regular visits with my workers compensation doctor, I have been placed on very strict restrictions, including no lifting and no contact with youth (my employers clients). Based on the restrictions that I was placed on by my workers compensation doctor, my employer was to find alternate duties for me while at work due to my normal duties included regular contact with clients. When I returned to work on 2/27/08, I brought the workers compensation doctors orders to my employer, and they told me to get back to work. They refused to modify my job duties, and placed me back in my normal duties against the orders of my workers compensation doctor. During the course of completing my normal duties, I was required to perform multiple physical restraints on acting out clients with my injured arm. Each time that I was required to perform a physical restraint on clients, I would speak with my employer about how I was not comfortable with my work environment due to my injury. My attempts to speak with my employer went ignored, and they kept me on normal duty. When I had visits with my workers compensation doctor, I would inform the doctor that my medical restrictions were being ignored. In turn, the doctor would place me on more strict medical restrictions, which would continue to be ignored by my employer.

On 4/15/08, I was told to conduct a suicide assessment on a client by the facilities acting clinical director, who is responsible for making the final determination on the plan of action for that client. Per company policy, a suicide assessment is to be completed on any client expressing ideations of self harm, or physically acting in a manner that would cause self harm. That was not the case with this client. Upon completion of the suicide assessment, I went to discuss the clients answers to the suicide assessment with the clinical director. After discussing the clients answers to the suicide assessment with the clinical director, she asked me to leave the suicide assessment with her so that she could complete the portion indicating what her plan of action for that client was going to be.

On 4/17/08, I was contacted by my employer, and I was asked to come in to work for a meeting. Upon arriving to work, I was informed by my employer that I was being placed on Administrative Leave. When I asked why I was being placed on Administrative Leave, the informed me that they could not tell me at that time, but that the HR manager would be contacting me on 4/18/08 to further discuss my being placed on Administrative Leave with me. When I arrived for the 4/18/08 meeting, I submitted multiple grievances to the HR manager (one of which was a grievance about the company not honoring the medical restrictions that I have been placed on by my workers compensation doctor). During this meeting, the HR manager informed me that I was being placed on Administrative Leave while the company investigated whether I had properly completed the suicide assessment that I was told to conduct on 4/15/08. I was informed that I would be contacted for information as the investigation continued. I was never contacted by the HR manager for information, and I was never given the opportunity to defend myself during this investigation.

On 4/28/08, I was contacted by the HR manager to arrange a meeting to discuss their findings of their investigation, as well as to review their findings of the grievances that I had submitted. They determined that all of the grievances were unfounded (which I can prove to be untrue because I kept ongoing documentation throughout the course of my employment). I was then informed by the HR manager that upon the completion of their investigation, they were terminating my employment. She then presented me with my termination papers, which contained false information. Although I was never offered the opportunity to defend myself during this investigation, my termination papers indicated that they had given me the opportunity to defend myself and that I had admitted fault. I requested that my termination papers be changed to contain accurate information, and my request was refused. I then refused to sign the termination papers because they contained false information. During the termination meeting, I asked if they were going to pay me for the 101 hours of vacation time that I had earned during my employment. The HR manager's response was that they were not going to pay my vacation time because their corporate policy is that vacation time is given on a "use it or lose it" basis. I explained that I was scheduled (it had already been a company approved vacation) to take time off for the birth of my child, and therefore I was attempting to use my vacation time at the time of my termination. I received no response. I then asked if they were going to pay me for the time that they had me on Administrative Leave. The HR manager's response that it is their corporate policy that Administrative Leave pay is not given to employees who are terminated following Administrative Leave. Since my employment was terminated, I have received documentation from a former female employee indicating that she had received Administrative Leave pay at the time of her termination. It is important to note that the HR manager that terminated my employment is also the same HR manager that terminated this female employee's employment. The HR manager that terminated our employment is a female. During my termination meeting, the HR manager did not conduct an exit interview. I was not given the opportunity to opt in to an alternative insurance plan, nor was I given the opportunity to indicate what information could be disclosed as a reference for prospective employers.

I strongly believe through research of the laws that I have a case in the following areas of employment law:
1) Violation of Colorado Workers Compensation Law: The employer did not protect the rights or safety of me as an employee while on workers compensation while I recovered from an injury that I received in the workplace. Futhermore, when modified job duties were not offered to meet the restrictions that I had been placed on by my workers compensation doctor, I was not offered the opportunity to go on short term disability until I was cleared to return to work.
2) Disability Discrimination: In the State of Colorado, when an employee is placed on workers compensation, they are considered to be temporarily disabled until they reach maximum medical improvement. As such, I was under a protected class during the time that I was on workers compensation, and was clearly discriminated against when I stood up for my rights as a member of this protected class.
3) Unsafe Work Environment: My employer refused to comply with any of my workers compensation doctors medical restrictions. These restrictions were put in place to keep me safe in the work place while I recovered from an injury that I received in the work place. My employer forced me to work in an environment where I not only had contact with clients, but also was required to physically restrain clients on multiple occasions with my injured arm.
4) Hostile Work Environment: While on workers compensation, I received a corrective a corrective action, and multiple threats of corrective action because I was unable to consistently do all of my job functions as a result of my injury. The corrective action that I received, and the threats of corrective action that I received were all directly related to client contact, which per the workers compensation doctor I was to have no contact with.
5) Retaliation: My receiving corrective actions, and eventually my termination was a result of me defending my rights as an employee on workers compensation, and eventually submitting written grievances against my employer.
6) Non-Payment Of Wages: My employer refused to pay my earned vacation time, and also refused to pay my Administrative Leave time, citing company policy. This company policy is not in accordance with the Colorado Wage Act (the non-waiver of rights), and they have exhibited with another employee that they were willing to pay these wages against company policy.
7) Gender Discrimination: As a result of my employer paying a female employee Administrative Leave pay following an investigation that resulted in her termination, gender discrimination took place when determining to not pay Administrative Leave pay following an investigation that resulted in my termination.
8) Illegal Termination Of Insurance Benefits: My employer never advised me when they were terminating my insurance benefits. Furthermore, I was never offered the opportunity to opt in to their group plan individually, or to opt in to the COBRA plan. These actions are in violation of the State of Colorado law.
9) Wrongful Termination: I was terminated illegally and through discrimination of my status as a temporarily disabled employee in the State of Colorado. Furthermore, there was an improper investigation that resulted in my termination, where I was not given the opportunity to defend myself. Had I been given the opportunity to defend myself, it would have been known that I was not responsible for the documentation error on the suicide assessment in question. Therefore, I was terminated from employment through no fault of my own. I know that Colorado is an at will state, and that an employer can terminate employment for any reason at any time. But given the fact that I am considered a protected employee due to my temporary disability status as an employee on workers compensation, my rights as an employee are protected against frivolous termination as occurred in this case.
10) Damages: I am seeking damages for unexpected costs as a result of this wrongful termination. I am also seeking costs for legal expenses, and mental and physical pain and suffering as a result of this termination.

THANK YOU AGAIN for any help that you are willing to offer.
 
Your post is about three times too long for me to read at this point; however, if you believe you have been discriminated against on the basis of gender or disability, your remedy is to file a complaint with the EEOC.
 
Sorry about the post being so long...i wanted to provide as much information as possible to get a quality response...but here is a long story short.

While on workers comp, my former employer refused to follow the medical restrictions given by the doctor. When I voiced my opinion about them not following my medical resrictions, my employer retaliated by threatening corrective action and/or termination on multiple occassions for underperformance in my normal duties, which i should not have been doing because of my medical restrictions. I was forced to perform physical restraints on clients (which I was not to have contact with per medical restrictions) with my injured arm, which created an unsafe work environment. I was then terminated from employment for an alleged performance issue related to direct client care, although I was to have no contact with clients. I was denied my vacation pay, although state law requires them to pay it at time of termination. I was also denied Administrative Leave pay based on company policy, although they had paid it to another former employee, who happens to be female (our HR manager is also a female). They terminated my medical benefits without offering alternatives, which created financial issues when my son was born 5 days after I was terminated from employment.

I have contacted the EEOC, and they have conducted their interview with me. They believe that I have a strong case because of my supporting documentation, but they are not going to pick up my case at this time because of their current case load being high. They would accept it if I could prove it on a class action basis. I have contacted multiple employment attorneys within a 100 mile radius of where I live, and either their case load it too high, or they only specialize in providing assistance to the employer. So i'm kind of at a dead end. I know I have a strong case (if you read my origional post, you would understand), but I am not sure what direction to turn from here. Basically, what are my options. What type of attorney do I attempt to contact? Would I be foolish to pursue a case on my own without legal representation (I have done a lot of independent legal research to get to this point, and already know the legal violations, and how they apply to my case)? I'm just looking for advice on which direction to go at this point.
 
What type of attorney do I attempt to contact? An employment law attorney.

Would I be foolish to pursue a case on my own without legal representation Foolish doesn't begin to describe it. You can bet your employer has legal representation.
 
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