A pharmacist is suing a staffing company and the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, alleging she was wrongfully fired in 2020 from her job with both defendants for getting pregnant and taking leave when she had complications.
Amy Le’s Los Angeles Superior Court lawsuit against the Sheriff’s Department and Rx Relief alleges wrongful termination, pregnancy discrimination and harassment, retaliation, intentional infliction of emotional distress and failure to take all steps to prevent harassment, discrimination and retaliation.
The Woodland Hills woman seeks unspecified compensatory damages against both defendants as well as punitive damages against Rx Relief.
The Sheriff’s Department said in a statement it appears that Le was never employed by the department “but may have been employed by Los Angeles County Correctional Health Services, a completely separate department of county government.”
“What we can say is Sheriff Alex Villanueva does not condone discrimination in any form,” the statement said.
A representative for Rx Relief could not be immediately reached for a response.
Le was hired as a pharmacist in December 2018 and was assigned to work at the Sheriff’s Department, the suit states. She became pregnant in about April 2019, but was harassed and discriminated against by supervisors and general employees immediately after letting them know she was expecting a child, the suit states.
Some of Le’s work colleagues commented daily that she was eating too much and that everyone else had to work harder because of her condition, the suit states.
Lee took a lengthy leave of absence in the summer of 2019 because of complications related to her pregnancy and she was subjected to harassment, discrimination and retaliation when she returned in May 2020, including a change to her schedule that reduced her pay and a took away of some of her job duties, the suit states.
Le also was denied training and told that it was “a lot of work” to bring her back after her leave, the suit alleges.
Le’s employers once again allegedly ignored her complaints of harassment and discrimination and instead fired her in August 2020, citing the excuse of a “poor work performance,” the suit states.