A longtime Caltech employee has settled her lawsuit against the institution, in which she alleged she suffered retaliation, including termination in 2023, for complaining about being “demeaned, demoralized and harassed” in the workplace and also because she sought accommodations for her hearing impairment.
Linda Donnelly’s Los Angeles Superior Court lawsuit alleged wrongful termination, retaliation, age discrimination, hostile work environment, failure to prevent discrimination, harassment and retaliation and failure to take part in the interactive process and provide reasonable accommodations.
On Friday, Donnelly’s attorney filed a notice of “unconditional” settlement with Judge Wendy Chang, but no terms were revealed.
In their previous court papers, Caltech lawyers denied Donnelly’s allegation and cited several defenses, including violation of the statute of limitations. The attorneys also maintained that to have accommodated the plaintiff’s alleged disability would have imposed an undue hardship on Caltech.
In her suit brought last June 7, Donnelly contended that Caltech “failed to promptly and thoroughly investigate allegations of discrimination, harassment and environmental violations” and instead retaliated against her, saying she was “demeaned, demoralized and harassed” due to her age and disability. She also maintained she was treated less favorably than younger employees.
Donnelly, 64 years old when she sued, has a birth-related hearing impairment. She worked as an administrative assistant for 20 years and had no disciplinary issues until a new business manager of optical observatories was hired in early 2020 and targeted the plaintiff because of her age and hearing problems, the suit alleged.
Caltech condoned and ratified the manager’s “reprehensible behavior” and Donnelly was not provided accommodations to help her hear better when talking by phone, even when the institution closed during the coronavirus pandemic and ordered employees to work from home, the suit stated.
Instead, Caltech took punitive action against Donnelly due to her disability that included the manager administering her a written work warning and delaying a scheduled salary increase, the suit stated.
“This malicious and arbitrary disciplinary action was not supported by Caltech’s guidelines and policies, was contrary to the reality of Ms. Donnelly’s work for Caltech and was designed to force Ms. Donnelly to resign from her position at Caltech,” the suit stated.
Donnelly’s doctor placed her on medical leave in January 2022 for six weeks and when she returned, the manager assigned her a burdensome, time-consuming task with a time deadline and a needed closed-caption telephone was not provided to the plaintiff, the suit stated.
Donnelly went on another physician-approved leave of absence in December 2022, returned a year later and was terminated, according to the suit, which further stated that the plaintiff was told that Caltech management was “no longer confident that (Donnelly) could successfully carry out her responsibilities as an administrative assistant.”