A 65-year-old former Wells Fargo Bank employee has dropped her lawsuit against her ex-employer, in which she alleged she was wrongfully terminated in 2021 because of her age and for complaining about allegedly unsafe coronavirus protocols at her branch.
An attorney for plaintiff Vanita Dhupar filed court papers on Monday with Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Joseph Lipner asking that Dhupar’s complaint be dismissed with prejudice, meaning it cannot be refiled.
The court papers do not state if a settlement was reached or if Dhupar is not pursuing the case for other reasons, but court papers filed by Wells Fargo attorneys in February stated that the parties were scheduled to have a March mediation session.
Filed last Aug. 29, Dhupar’s lawsuit also alleged harassment, retaliation, failure to prevent discrimination and harassment, failure to provide reasonable accommodations and engage in the interactive process and intentional infliction of emotional distress.
A Wells Fargo representative previously issued a statement about the suit.
“Wells Fargo has zero tolerance for discrimination and acts of retaliation,” the statement read. “In addition, we have strong equal employment opportunity policies in place to protect employees from discrimination, harassment or retaliation for filing a complaint. Throughout the pandemic, we implemented extensive health and safety precautions to protect our employees and customers.”
Dhupar, of Placentia, was hired as a teller in 1996 and rose in the bank to become a service manager in 2004, the suit stated.
While the average age of Wells Fargo managers was once more than 50, that number has since dropped to around age 45, leaving Dhupar at the time as one of the few remaining managers over age 60, according to the suit.
In 2019, a Wells Fargo assistance manager told tellers and bankers during a morning meeting that Dhupar was going to retire by March of that year, an incorrect statement that the plaintiff believes was part of the bank’s “long-running scheme” to push her out of her job, the suit stated.
Although Dhupar received praise for her work as a service manager and sought further promotions, she was never elevated again, even though younger employees were offered training and promotion opportunities, according to the suit.
Management’s treatment of Dhupar worsened after she complained of the bank’s handling of employees’ health and safety during the COVID-19 pandemic, the suit stated.
“As a frontline worker, she risked her life and safety to keep her branch running smoothly in light of the unknowns the global pandemic presented,” the suit stated.
But Dhupar’s efforts went unappreciated by management, the suit alleged.
“In fact, they knowingly and consistently ignored rules set in place by local, state and federal agencies … and punished plaintiff for making safety-related complaints,” the suit stated.
When several branch employees became sick with COVID-19 in early November 2020, management did not give proper notice to employees, nor did it take subsequent safety measures for the workers who stayed on their jobs, the suit stated.
In December 2020, a teller in tears told Dhupar that a well-known customer had inappropriately touched her and showed her lewd photos in the parking lot, the suit stated. Dhupar reported the incident to a district manager, who did not seem to care about what happened to the teller, but was instead “very upset and concerned” that the plaintiff had sent the email with a “troublesome” title, the suit stated.
Dhupar believes the district manager did not want Dhupar to “leave a paper trail of sexual harassment because it would look bad for the company,” the suit stated.
Dhupar alleges that in retaliation for coming forward on the coronavirus and sexual harassment issues, management changed her schedule, accused her of falsifying time cards and began treating her differently in other ways as well, the suit stated. She went on stress leave in January 2021, but management continually called her and two months later accused her of abandoning her job, worsening her anxiety, the suit stated.
Dhupar was terminated in June 2021, an action she believes was related to her age and her protests about coronavirus safety and the teller’s alleged sexual harassment, the suit stated.