Worker fired after taking leave for severe depression, feds say. Now hospital must pay
A medical assistant developed severe depression and took leave from work in Georgia. But when she tried to return to her job, the facility fired her, federal labor officials say.
By firing the woman, Atlanta’s Grady Memorial Hospital Corporation discriminated against her for having depression in violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act, according to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Her depression, which is “substantially” limiting, qualifies her as an individual protected by the ADA, a complaint states.
Now Grady Memorial Hospital will pay her $55,000 to settle the EEOC’s lawsuit filed on behalf of the woman, the federal agency announced in a Nov. 16 news release.
“We are pleased that Grady agreed to resolve this case and compensate its former employee,” Marcus G. Keegan, the EEOC’s attorney for its Atlanta District Office, said in a statement. “Providing an accommodation for an employee’s disability is an important obligation. Grady will not only compensate the claimant; it will also take the steps necessary to improve its accommodation process to ensure this does not happen again.”
McClatchy News contacted attorneys representing the hospital, described by the EEOC as one of Georgia’s biggest employers, for comment on Nov. 17 and did not immediately receive a response.
The woman began working for Grady Memorial Hospital as a nursing assistant before she became a full-time certified medical assistant in 2018, according to the complaint.
She “was qualified for her job” and could perform her duties “with or without a reasonable accommodation” before she was fired in 2019, the complaint states.
By September 2019, the woman began experiencing severe depression and visited a doctor who diagnosed her with the condition, according to the complaint. Then she requested leave for a few weeks to accommodate her depression.
The American Psychiatric Association defines depression as “a common and serious medical illness that negatively affects how you feel, the way you think and how you act.”
The woman gave the hospital a note from her doctor saying she could come back to work on Nov. 4, 2019, according to the EEOC.
But when Nov. 4 came and the medical assistant tried returning to work, the hospital didn’t allow it, the complaint says. Instead, the woman was told she needed another doctor’s note.
Despite her efforts, the woman was having trouble obtaining a second doctor’s note because her physician was out of the office, according to the EEOC. During this time, the hospital still was not allowing her to work.
Ultimately, days later, a hospital Human Resources manager told the woman she was fired for “failure to return from leave,” the complaint states.
The EEOC says the hospital fired her “because of an actual disability.”
As part of the lawsuit settlement, Grady Memorial Hospital has also agreed to have its employees undergo ADA training, change employment policies and will allow the EEOC to oversee hospital worker’s accommodation requests, according to the release.
This story was originally published November 17, 2022 at 9:58 AM with the headline "Worker fired after taking leave for severe depression, feds say. Now hospital must pay."
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