Archives for July 31, 2020

The employee rights advocates at Haeggquist & Eck have sued La Jolla-based Axos Bank after it fired a single mother of four who requested to work from home during the COVID-19 pandemic.Taneasha Newsome had worked for Axos Bank for nine years and, like many Americans, found herself working remotely from home while managing four children whose schools were shut down earlier this spring as a result of COVID-19. One of her children is autistic, and the shutdown of local schools meant Ms. Newsome was also required to continue all necessary services and therapy appointments for her child while sheltering in place at home.Axos installed a tracking software to monitor employees who were working from home, but the lawsuit alleges that Axos knew the program was unable to track certain aspects of employees’ work, leading to underreporting of actual hours worked.The company demanded that all employees return to full-time, in-office work by May 1, 2020 – at a time when local schools were still shut down. When Ms. Newsom requested an accommodation to continue working from home to care for her children – including her disabled child – Axos Bank fired her, the lawsuit alleges. The complaint alleges associational disability discrimination and wrongful termination, failure to provide reasonable accommodations, and racial discrimination.The lawsuit is pending in the United States District Court for the Southern District of California, in San Diego.

Click here to watch 10News’ coverage of the case. Click here to read about the case in the San Diego Union-Tribune.If you have been fired after requesting an accommodation from your employer, click here or call (619) 342-8000 to contact the employment attorneys at Haeggquist & Eck.

A team of attorneys from Haeggquist & Eck have sued Central Valley Meat Company, one of the nation’s largest meat-processing facilities employing more than 900 people in Hanford, Calif., after the company allowed multiple employees to return to work the day after they tested positive for COVID-19 this spring.

Maria Ornelas is the named plaintiff in the case, which is styled as a class action and is pending in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of California. Ornelas contracted coronavirus in April and filed the suit on behalf of workers at Central Valley Meat Company.

The complaint alleges that Central Valley Meat knowingly allowed at least one employee to work up to five additional days after testing positive for COVID-19, and states that at least one of the first workers to test positive was expressly told by Central Valley Meat to return to work in only two days, despite CDC guidelines urging otherwise.

Click here to read the Fresno Bee’s coverage of the case. The case was also featured in California Patch, on local news outlets throughout California’s Central Valley and Bay Area, and on TopClassActions.com.

If you have been forced to return to work after a positive COVID-19 test, contact the attorneys at Haeggquist & Eck for a free consultation.  You can get in touch with someone who can help by calling (619) 342-8000 or by contacting us online.