A former UCLA radiation therapist of Vietnamese heritage has reached a tentative settlement in her discrimination/retaliation lawsuit in which she alleged she was harassed and discriminated against by her Filipino supervisor.
Plaintiff Trang Le said in her Los Angeles Superior Court lawsuit that her boss often screamed at her, leaving Le unable to supervise her own employees or provide proper patient care and safety. Le also maintained she was wrongfully fired in 2022 for complaining about her boss and that UCLA hired a Filipino replacement.
On Tuesday, Le’s attorneys filed court papers with Judge Michael Small notifying him of a “conditional” accord in the case with the expectation a request for dismissal will be brought by June 30.
No terms were divulged.
In their previous court papers, attorneys for the UC Regents maintained that there were “legitimate, non-discriminatory reasons for ending plaintiff’s employment during her probationary period” due to “numerous performance issue, including serious concerns for risks to patient safety.”
According to Le’s suit, she was hired in May 2022 at UCLA as a chief radiation therapist in the Department of Radiation Oncology. Le has more than 40 years of experience in her line of work. That same month, a Vietnamese colleague of Le’s overheard two Filipino radiation therapists reviewing work resumes and one told the other, “We should hire only Filipinos,” the suit stated.
One of the Filipino therapists constantly yelled at Le, according to the suit. When Le once asked a colleague for help on a work-related issue, the Filipino therapist said, “Never ask anyone else for assistance. You come to me if you need anything. Do you understand me, (expletive)?”
Le is a soft-spoken woman, is non-confrontational and did not scream back at the Filipino therapist, but that only encouraged him to increase his bullying and abuse of the plaintiff and UCLA did not take any action to help her, the suit filed in August 2023 stated.
Although a manager assured Le in September 2022 after she complained about the Filipino therapist that her work environment would improve, Le was fired two months later and replaced by a young Filipino man, the suit stated.