MLG Secures Over $37K Settlement for Race, Disability Discrimination and Harassment Victim

LOS ANGELES - April 24, 2014 - PRLog -- The top Los Angeles employment and labor law attorneys of the Mesriani Law Group (MLG) has once again displayed their proficiency in winning cases on behalf of their clients after they recently secured $36,725.00 settlement for an employee of Iranian descent who was discriminated and harassed by her manager on account of her race and disability.

Case files revealed that client-employee was hired on June 2004 as a store stocker for a retailer chain at one of its locations in San Bernardino County, California. Throughout her employment, she performed her duties responsibly and diligently; in fact, she was promoted to a cashier position three years after she was hired. She proved to be an exemplary employee, as evidenced in her evaluation and performance reviews.

However, client-employee was diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes around 2009, and then, about early 2010, the company hired an individual as the store’s manager. These two significant events in her employment and in her life in general would be the starting points of her ordeal as an employee, as she would later on be subjected to severe discrimination and harassment on account of her race and disability. Needless to say, the newly-installed store manager would transform client-employee’s healthy working environment into a hostile one.

It started with her manager unreasonably reducing her normal 40-hour workweek to just 32.5 hours. Client-employee questioned her boss’ decision, but the manager said that she would do what she feels is right for her. She was obviously frustrated by it, more so that the latter’s favored employees who were not disabled and Persian were keeping their 40-hours-per-week status and getting higher salaries.

Despite this, client-employee continued to excellently perform her duties, hoping that her store manager would appreciate all her efforts. Still, the store manager continued to single her out. In fact, she was the least recognized among her co-workers; in two of the annual performance reviews, she received an overall performance score equivalent to at or well below “effective.” Prior to the store manager’s employment, her score in her two reviews was equivalent to between “effective” and “outstanding.”

In relation to the reviews, the store manager explained that client-employee’s “bad reviews” were brought about by her laziness, plus the fact that she spoke Farsi with the Farsi-speaking customers. Again, she was upset by her boss’ discriminatory remarks, as she believed that her being bilingual helped put the store’s customers at ease, initiating such conversations in the context of shopping at the store. Nonetheless, not only was she forced not to speak Farsi while in the store premises, but some of her co-workers were allowed to speak in their native language with customers and/or around themselves.

Later on, client-employee’s attending doctor advised her to be calm at all times and be able to observe a regular and well-maintained meal schedule in order to control her blood sugar levels. But due to their constant confrontations with her store manager and being given inconsistent lunch break schedules, her blood sugar levels began to fluctuate and she reached higher levels of stress and anxiety. On numerous occasions, she felt constant fatigue and dizziness, even asking for help from customers and her co-workers to help her stabilize her blood sugar. Her several episodes of fainting, which was brought about by the temperature inside the store, caused her to acquire several minor injuries, including a sprained elbow, cuts and bruises from falling. Still, her store manager displayed lack of sympathy towards her, even suggesting to her to stop working if she doesn’t feel healthy.

The store manager’s misconduct, plus the hostile working environment client-employee was subjected to, evidently took a toll on her health. Because of this, she sometimes had trouble concentrating and focusing at work; in particular, she had a hard time working in her cash register. Indeed, while all cashiers, including her, had some occasional minor cash shortages or excesses in their registers, the store manager singled her out the most. As a matter of fact, she received 24 warnings from the time the store manager was hired in 2010 up to client-employee’s suspension on June 30, 2012. Most of her warnings were for minor discrepancies rather than major policy violations. In comparison, she only received 18 warnings in the six years of her employment before the store manager was hired.

Client-employee served her suspension after mishandling the cash register assigned to her. Although her other co-workers were written-up, transferred and/or demoted for the same misconduct, she was given an excessive measure of suspension. Ultimately, she was terminated on July 5, 2012.

It was evident in the case files that the store manager created a hostile working environment for the client-employee. Not only did she discriminate and harass client-employee on account of her race and disability, but she likewise failed to provide reasonable accommodations for her medical condition, and eventually wrongfully terminated her employment without valid cause in violation of public policy.

A year later, she filed the necessary complaints against her former employer with the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing. She received her right-to-sue notice after filing the complaints and then hired the expert Los Angeles employment and labor lawyers of the Mesriani Law Group.

Thanks to the diligence and aggressiveness of MLG’s attorneys to pursue the client-employee’s interests, they were able to successfully recover on her behalf a reasonable settlement amount of $36,725.00. This covered the damages she incurred during her ordeal, from back pay, lost wages and future income, to emotional distress, among others.

The unmatched dedication and expertise of the Los Angeles lawyers of the Mesriani Law Group were evident in this settlement victory. This adds up to the thousands of cases that the law firm has successfully handled in more than 15 years of its legal practice in California.

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