Boss said worker with bipolar disorder went to ‘loony bin’ before firing her, suit says
A woman who said she lost her job at a staffing agency in Virginia after she was diagnosed with bipolar disorder will get $125,000 to settle allegations of disability discrimination.
PeopleReady Inc. and its parent company TrueBlue Inc. — a staffing and recruitment company based in Washington state — were accused of violating the Americans with Disabilities Act by firing the employee after she was hospitalized during a manic episode and had to take a leave of absence.
A supervisor was reportedly heard making a comment about her “going to the loony bin” during that time.
“Federal law clearly obligates employers to provide reasonable accommodations, including providing medical leave needed because of an employee’s disability, absent undue hardship — and there was no such hardship to the employer in this case,” said Mindy E. Weinstein, director of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s Washington Field Office.
The EEOC, a federal agency tasked with safeguarding anti-discrimination laws in the workplace, had filed a federal lawsuit on the employee’s behalf in September.
A lawyer representing PeopleReady and TrueBlue did not immediately respond to McClatchy News’ request for comment on March 2.
In a statement, company spokesperson David Irwin said PeopleReady and TrueBlue deny violating the ADA but said they “took the EEOC’s allegations seriously.” The decision-makers involved in the lawsuit are no longer with the company, he said.
“We have a zero-tolerance policy for discrimination based on all protected statuses under the law and are committed to the fair treatment of our employees and conducting business ethically,” the company said. “PeopleReady stands with the EEOC in its commitment to ensuring that workplaces remain free from discrimination and that all employees are treated with equality and respect. To reconfirm our commitment to these values, we have also agreed to provide additional training for our employees in these areas.”
According to the complaint, the employee started working as a market recruiting coordinator at a PeopleReady branch in Manassas, Virginia, in March 2018. Manassas is about 30 miles southwest of Washington, D.C.
In August 2018, her husband called a supervisor at PeopleReady to let him know she would not be at work because she had been hospitalized “due to psychiatric illness,” the EEOC said in court documents.
The employee received approval for several weeks of medical leave and returned to the office on Sept. 24, 2018, according to the lawsuit. When she came back, the EEOC said, she told her supervisor and co-workers that she had been diagnosed with bipolar I disorder.
An assistant manager subsequently told her that “people in the office are uncomfortable working with you because of your condition,” the complaint states.
The employee experienced another setback in November 2018 when she had a manic episode at work and had to go home early, the EEOC said. The same thing happened two days in a row and she was ultimately hospitalized for a second time with symptoms related to her bipolar disorder.
According to the lawsuit, PeopleReady drafted a so-called Performance Discussion Record after the employee’s second absence, citing issues with her “Attendance/Punctuality.”
But the EEOC said PeopleReady made no attempt to ask for medical documentation related to her absences, nor was the Performance Discussion Record ever shown to her or discussed with her. Neither she nor PeopleReady reportedly signed it.
The employee had to request medical leave while she was hospitalized for several weeks in November 2018, which the company initially approved, according to the complaint.
Around the same time, a co-worker reported hearing their supervisor reference the employee’s hospital stay as “going to the loony bin.” The EEOC said the same supervisor also emailed Human Resources, asking, “Where do I stand with my problem child? Are we terminating (her) this week?”
PeopleReady ultimately rescinded its approval of the employee’s medical leave and fired her on the same day she returned to work.
The employee later filed a charge of discrimination with the EEOC, which determined in July 2021 that there was reasonable cause to believe PeopleReady and TrueBlue had violated federal law. They filed suit after a failed attempt to resolve the matter outside of court.
Under the terms of the consent decree filed Feb. 17, the companies agreed to pay their former employee $49,048 in lost wages, $4,928 in interest on back pay and $71,024 in damages.
The agreement is not, however, an admission that the companies engaged in any discriminatory practices.
PeopleReady and TrueBlue also agreed to implement a reasonable accommodation policy under the ADA, provide training on ADA compliance and provide regular reports to the EEOC. A federal judge approved the agreement on Feb. 22, court filings show.
This story was originally published March 2, 2022 at 1:12 PM.
