A data interpreter is suing Los Angeles County for disability discrimination, alleging she was subjected to disparate treatment because she was only given limited ability to work from home as she dealt with stomach cancer and eventually placed on unpaid leave.
Uyen Duong’s Los Angeles Superior Court lawsuit was filed Wednesday and alleges harassment, retaliation and failure to accommodate and engage in the interactive process. She seeks unspecified damages.
A county representative issued a statement Monday saying, “The county generally does not comment on pending litigation or individual personnel matters. However, we do want to make clear that L.A. County actively supports an inclusive workplace and has structured a wide range of benefits, policies and programs to prioritize our employees’ well-being and safety.”
Duong was hired as a research analyst 2 in June 2017 and promoted two years later to an analyst 3 in the Environmental Health Division, performing her job well, the suit states. However, in 2021 she was harassed and subjected to retaliation due to a decline in her health that left her dizzy and vomiting blood, which was diagnosed as being stomach cancer, according to the suit.
When the county began asking employees to start returning to their offices four days a week in July 2021 after they had been working from home due to the coronavirus pandemic, management declined to allow Duong to continue working from home from July and August of that year to heal, telling her she would have to take unpaid leave, the suit states.
Duong filed a complaint about her work conditions with the county Equity Oversight Panel, underwent stomach surgery and started seeing a psychiatrist, according to her suit, which further states that her doctor said she could work full time through the end of 2021 if she stayed home due to her health and surgery.
However, despite three meetings with her department, Duong was not given work-from-home accommodations and her department director was not present for any of the sessions, according to the suit, which further states that the plaintiff subsequently complained to the California Civil Rights Department because her department was allegedly discriminating and harassing her based on her condition.
Duong was eventually allowed to work from home two days weekly through June 2023, but she believes management’s concession was not really an accommodation because her department at the time was allowing all workers to telework two days a week due to the surge in the Omnicron variant, the suit states.
Despite having a doctor’s note that she needed to work from home for another six months beginning last August due to her worsening condition, her department did not accommodate her and instead placed her on unpaid medical leave, according to the suit.
Duong was “constructively discharged” last September, years before she wanted to retire, according to the suit, which further states that she has suffered financially, experienced emotional distress and seen her reputation impaired.