A registered nurse is suing Valley Presbyterian Hospital, alleging he was fired last spring for complaining that the Van Nuys medical center was not following mandated safety procedures for COVID-19 around the same time he began developing debilitating symptoms of the virus.
Joven Alvarez’s Los Angeles Superior Court lawsuit alleges wrongful termination, intentional infliction of emotional distress and numerous state Labor Code violations, including lack of payment for overtime as well as missed meal and rest breaks. He seeks unspecified compensatory and punitive damages in the suit filed Monday.
A hospital representative did not immediately reply to a request for comment.
Alvarez, hired in November 2012, had a higher risk of contracting COVID-19 because he was in health care, and when the virus began to spread in California, he began to “explicitly complain to Valley Presbyterian about the lack of safety measures at the workplace and the blatant disregard for health and safety measures … to safeguard employees and customers from becoming infected,” the suit alleges.
The plaintiff says those measures included steps “readily available for implementation and identifiable from public resources, including the Los Angeles County Department of Health, the Centersfor Disease Control and other such entities,” but his court papers do not offer specifics beyond that.
While Alvarez was making his concerns known, the hospital “explicitly encouraged people to continue carrying on business as usual” and ignored the plaintiff’s complaints, the suit alleges.
Instead, he alleges the hospital subjected him to discrimination, harassment and retaliation, causing him a “tremendous amount of anxiety and stress while at the workplace.”
Last April, Alvarez began exhibiting COVID-19 symptoms and was placed on medical leave for about two weeks by his doctor, according to the suit, which does not precisely state whether he was formally diagnosed with the virus.
Alvarez continued to experience hostility when he returned to work and was subjected to unsafe work conditions and persisted in complaining about areas of the hospital that were unsafe, the suit alleges.
Alvarez was fired last April 28 and believes he lost his job because of his complaints, his illness and for taking medical leave, according to his court papers.
Alvarez has suffered emotional distress and incurred medical expenses in addition to having lost past and future wages and benefits, the suit states.