Kaiser Foundation Hospitals says it was already planning to terminate employee before accommodations request
In a recent case, the California Court of Appeal said that a jury could reasonably conclude that an employer’s concerns about an employee’s disability substantially motivated its ultimate decision to terminate her.
Kaiser Foundation Hospitals – the defendant in the case of Lin v. Kaiser Foundation Hospitals – hired the plaintiff in 1999. By 2017, she was a software quality assurance associate engineer in the innovation and transformation (I&T) department.
In December 2018, Kaiser started planning to lay off some employees as part of a reduction in force (RIF) to help it meet the next year’s budgetary goals.
In January 2019, the plaintiff fell in her workplace and injured her left shoulder. The next day, she requested disability accommodations. Later that month, she requested more accommodations, including regular medical and physical therapy visits.
That April, Kaiser notified the plaintiff that it eliminated her position and would terminate her employment in June. This prompted her to sue Kaiser. Her complaint alleged wrongful termination in violation of public policy and intentional infliction of emotional distress.
The plaintiff also made the following claims under California’s Fair Employment and Housing Act: disability discrimination, retaliation for requesting disability accommodations, failure to prevent discrimination and retaliation, failure to...
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