A 19-year veteran says her shoulder injury cost her promotions - then her job
A 19-year Toyota veteran says the carmaker stalled her career, then pushed her out on disability leave - all over a shoulder injury.
Angela Watkins, a 52-year-old Team Leader at Toyota Motor Manufacturing Alabama, sued the company on May 1, 2026 in the US District Court for the Northern District of Alabama. She alleges Toyota violated the Americans with Disabilities Act by denying her promotions, retaliating against her internal complaints, and placing her on involuntary short-term disability leave in March 2025.
Watkins has worked at Toyota's Huntsville-area plant since August 2006. According to the complaint, she has never received a written disciplinary action and was once featured in a Women in Manufacturing publication.
In July 2014, the filing says, she suffered a permanent right shoulder injury while reaching into equipment to change a cutting tool. After surgery and a 2020 Functional Capacity Evaluation, she was placed on permanent lifting restrictions. Toyota's own safety policy already required a two-person lift for anything over 20 pounds - the same threshold as her restrictions.
For four years, Watkins says, she performed her assigned roles successfully under those restrictions. She trained Group Leaders, Team Leaders, and Team Members in Toyota's 3 Pillar system. Her supervisors told her she was excelling on a new Differential Line in early 2025, the complaint alleges.
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